So. I feel like horror movies tend to follow a pretty simple formula:
Group of characters: Does something stupid and dangerous, like play with a ouija board or enter a haunted house. Bad things occur, up to and including multiple people being killed. Characters: Surprised Pikachu face.
I’d love to say this has no bearing in reality, but…replace ‘enter a haunted house’ with ‘have a party in the middle of a global pandemic’ and…yeah. I’m starting to think horror movies are just commentaries on people’s stupidity. Not all of them, of course…but I can’t honestly say that horror movie characters are stupider than real life people.
I wasn’t actually expecting to watch this movie today. There was a secret showing at Cineworld and I booked in for it. The movie had a rating of 15, but no genre indicated…and a rating of 15 could be so many different genres. After the trailers finished and the warnings of horror and bloody violence appeared, I did notice quite a few people walk out of the cinema, so I do think the genre (or at least an idea of the content) should have been included on the website.
Despite how formulaic this movie was, I did think that a severed hand rather than a ouija board or haunted house was a more unique way of having a group of teenagers open a doorway to the dead. And it was actually pretty interesting to see the way they all almost got high off of the experience (like doing drugs or drinking alcohol)…right up until things went so horribly and awfully wrong.
The problem with this movie was that the characters were so very bland. I actually had no real reason to care about what happened to them. Mia had apparently lost her mother, but I was confused over whether this had only just occurred, or if it had happened a while ago, because…she only seemed really affected by the loss when the plot called for it. And it apparently didn’t even occur to her to try and talk to her mother after the first time she held the hand?
The creepiest part of the movie was actually one of the bits that was shown in the trailer, where a possessed Mia is repeating, “Run!” over and over again. In this movie, she’s only talking to one of the other characters, which is actually a nice bit of foreshadowing…but aside from that, there was nothing really that creepy or standout about this movie. There were a couple of times I cringed and had to look away, but that was more to do with how disturbing the violence involving a minor character was…and that level probably should have pushed the movie towards an 18.
Apart from Mia, Jade and her mother and brother were the most developed characters, although I absolutely hated the mother. The way she spoke to Jade and accused her so much just made her come across as an abusive person. Okay, she was right about the party – but the way she interrogated Jade, Mia and Daniel over and over again left me feeling extremely uncomfortable about her. And even when she was understandably upset about what had happened, I couldn’t feel sorry for her because I was waiting for her to show more abuse, given how bad she’d been when there wasn’t an emergency.
On the whole, while there were a couple of unique aspects to this movie, it was pretty predictable with very little character development. From the trailer I saw, I was expecting a different kind of movie.
It’s probably worth seeing if you like horror movies and don’t mind particularly graphic scenes of violence, but I don’t think I’d watch this movie a second time.
So, this book was one that I decided to get (when I had an Amazon gift voucher) due to various people I knew online enjoying the book and telling me it was good.
I’m very glad I decided to give this book a chance. It was really easy to read, and Juliette was a character who was easy to empathise with. I thought the use of the strikethroughs to show how her thoughts were so chaotic was really unique…and while it did throw me a bit to have numbers written as numbers and not in words (2 instead of two, for instance), it didn’t take long for me to accept that as part of her character.
I wasn’t especially sold on the love triangle that was going on between Juliette, Adam and Werner. All three characters were interesting in their own right, even if Werner came across as a really sadistic, cruel person after trying to force Juliette to use her powers on a toddler. There were hints of more depth to him than how he immediately came across…though I really hope that if he becomes a good guy in later books, his refusal to accept the word ‘No’ is dealt with. Too many books have male characters forcing themselves on female characters and it’s not only treated as normal, but the woman suddenly realises it’s what she wanted all along (I’m looking at you, Carpathian series).
I really liked the fact that, while it was clear Juliette couldn’t actually touch anyone (or be touched by them), it wasn’t immediately clear just what her ability was until later in the book. And learning gradually about her history, not only with Adam but also with her parents and the other schoolchildren when she went to school, was a really good way of introducing her past…even if she did fall into a huge amount of cliches I’ve noticed with many heroines in young adult books.
I really liked Kenji’s character, and I would have liked to see a bit more of him rather than him appearing more towards the end. I really enjoyed his banter with Adam…but was far less sold on the apparent obsession he too developed with Juliette, constantly trying to flirt with her and hit on her. Yeah, he backed off once it was clear that Adam and Juliette was involved, but his refusal to take ‘I’m not interested,’ gracefully really soured my opinion of him as a character…and my view of this book as a whole, if I’m honest. I’m not a big fan of the overpowered woman who becomes the whole centre of every single character’s universe. I’m interested in seeing the world through a character’s eyes, not seeing every other character tell her what an amazing, powerful, ‘We need you so much!’ person she is. Conflicts make characters interesting. Not everyone has to love her and obsess mindlessly over her.
Wow, sorry. That went a bit more ranty than I was planning. Basically, if it wasn’t for everyone becoming so obsessed with Juliette, this book would be a solid four out of five stars. But making pretty much every person only think about her and want to get her, despite there being other people with abilities? Yeah, that’s dropped down the star rating.
I might give the next book in this series a try, but not if I’m going to be only reading about how much everyone wants to get their hands on her…both figuratively and literally. Unfortunately, this book just hit too many of those negative cliches for me by the end…and I’m so annoyed, because I would have enjoyed this so much otherwise.
So. Being someone who used to love playing with Barbies…and who has also watched some of the Barbie animated movies as an adult (I am not ashamed)…I was immediately excited to see this movie, and really happy I got the chance to se it on Friday with my sister and my oldest nibling.
This movie was a lot of fun. I loved the opening scene, showing how Barbie’s appearance changed girls’ lives for the better…at least as far as the Barbies were aware.
It was really interesting to see Barbieland and how it all worked. The narrator commenting on how things worked, such as, ‘You don’t play a doll walking out of her house,’ to explain why Barbie was floating down from her roof worked really well. And I thought it was really interesting to see how other parts of the world worked. For instance, Barbie not actually eating and just ‘pretending’…but at the same time, she was able to drive her car, even though it wasn’t actually a real car, so….
I did feel bad for Ken, at least to begin with, since he was clearly in love with Barbie and she didn’t feel the same way about him. I actually really liked how this movie handled that between stereotypical Barbie and Ken.
I did feel somewhat bad for all of the Kens, since not that far into the movie, it became very clear that none of them had homes of their own. It isn’t very clear where the Kens go at night, or where they wake up…compared to the Barbies, who each wake up in their dreamhouse with the whole day reset…at least, that’s what it seems like, considering all the Barbies woke up in their own individual dream houses after having the girls’ night sleepover.
I really liked being able to see all of the different types of Barbie, along with those like Allan, Midge and Skipper. Allan was probably one of the best parts of this movie, with the comments he came out with and how he was shown to be dealing with everything that had happened.
I really enjoyed Barbie and Ken ending up in the real world and being able to see the different ways both Barbie and Ken saw the real world. I also really liked Barbie’s evolution as a character through the movie; Margot Robbie is a fantastic actress, and I felt she really got the chance to shine in this role.
On the whole, this movie was a lot of fun to watch, but I also felt it dealt with a couple of very serious issues. I was really happy that there was no main focus on romance, and that the movie was instead about Barbie’s journey…and I really liked how the movie ended. Basically, this whole movie was really good; and if you’ve ever enjoyed playing with Barbies, no matter what gender you are, I would highly recommend watching this movie.
I was a bit hesitant about buying this book, since even though my sister sent me the link and said, ‘I think this might be something you’d like,’ it was a bit more expensive for a book that was only 100 pages (more of a novella), and there were quite a few mixed reviews about it. But then I bought several books for my KIndle, and that included this book.
I did think that there was a lot of potential to this book. The cover was very striking, and the blurb sounded really intriguing.
Unfortunately, it was really hard to care about all of the characters except for Cat, who was the narrator. For most of the book, it felt like the events were happening in a dream…like it wasn’t really very real. Apart from Cat, the only character who had any real development was the ghost herself…who I felt sorry for the more I learned about her fate and how long she’d been waiting for, with the only company being of the sacrificed girls who wouldn’t be able to keep her warm for very long.
It did seem a bit much that all it took was Talia going to investigate a strange noise for Lin to start talking about horror movie cliches. Sometimes fourth wall breaks work, but this book wasn’t one of those times. And the random insertion about Cat being bisexual came completely out of left field, because the only time it was even mentioned was Lin saying it was why she’d be one of the first killed. Up until that point, it had just been made clear that she had romantic history with…well, all three of the guys in the group.
This book definitely could have done with being longer, allowing for the characters to be more developed. There was a lot of potential…and I did think that the scenes with Cat and the ghost were suitably creepy. I just wish that the other characters had been developed enough so that I’d actually care about what happened to them.
Reading the note at the beginning of this comic, it was stated outright that this comic book would be non-stop…and I have to admit, that was definitely the case here.
I was a bit lost by the sudden appearance of Spider-Man basically coming across as a villain…as a monster, as stated on the front cover of the comic. I didn’t really know what was going on with the serum, other than it seemed to have caused a breakdown in Peter Parker’s intelligence, causing Spider-Man to become savage. It also seemed to enable him to…control other creatures/people who had the same spider abilities as him? Kind of like a whole hive mind of spider-people, though I wasn’t sure if they were other humans, or animals that Peter had somehow developed the ability to control.
I did find the enemies who wanted to ‘purify’ people very interesting, although I was really confused about why they were wearing animal masks. Were they supposed to be part animals? Or just wearing masks for some reason? Unlike a lot of the other comics, this wasn’t one that was so easy to pick up partway through the story. I did feel that the enemies were a real, credible threat, though. And the release of the serum to ‘purge’ people contained a lot of tension.
It was really interesting to see the evolution of the A-PLUS serum in Peter Parker’s body, and how he went from the Savage Spider-Man to what seemed to be a being much higher on the evolutionary scale. It made me wonder what more he might have become if the serum had been allowed to stay in his system…but, of course, it was too dangerous to be allowed to run rampant.
I also liked the writing and artwork of this comic book, especially when it came to Peter’s spidey-sense being shown. And, of course, I really liked the brief cameo of Doctor Strange towards the end of the comic book.
On the whole, although this story was a little difficult to follow, I did enjoy reading it. I’d be very interested in reading the comics leading up to this storyline…as well as seeing any after effects of this on Peter Parker later on.
So, this book immediately grabbed my attention when I saw it in Asda, on the same shelf as A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. I bought it a few weeks later and started reading it and….
If I’m completely honest, this book didn’t really meet my expectations. I thought it had a lot of potential…and it was a book that was easy to read. I did like Monica’s character, and I felt bad for her that her mom was so traumatised by her oldest daughter’s death, it had a huge impact on her relationship with Monica. It broke my heart when Monica thought about how low she sat on her mother’s list of priorities, given that it was her younger brother’s birthday her mom used for her passwords.
I didn’t think that it was necessary to have the chapters from five years ago, written from Jen’s perspective. Honestly, those really threw me out of the story…and seemed wholly unnecessary, since anything that was revealed in Jen’s chapters was very quickly uncovered by Monica. And switching between first and third person is very jarring.
I was disappointed that, despite there being chemistry between them, nothing happened between Monica and Ginny. For a lot of the book, it felt like there was a buildup to them getting together…and I’m extremely disappointed this was ignored in favour of pushing Monica together with a guy who she barely seemed to know exist.
I did think there were too many threads in this book. They weren’t really woven together seamlessly; which makes sense, I guess. The tagline on the front of the book doesn’t really fit with anything that happened, though. ‘Five girls lied and five girls died’. The five girls dying is obvious. Those lying…well, I might be able to think of about three, maybe four, who were lying throughout the book. But there was too much going on for those dots to connect. I didn’t have the, ‘That makes sense’ moment when the truth was revealed. And honestly, the whole thing about Jen felt like it was just tacked on to explain what had happened.
This book had so much potential, but unfortunately for me, it just fell completely short. There was too much pushed into this book…and the ending really spoiled the whole thing for me. I might check out other books by this author in the future, but unfortunately, this one isn’t on my ‘read again’ list.
Compared to the previous two books in this series, I found this one took me more time to get through. I’m not sure why; maybe the events of book two had traumatised me in the same way they had Pip? That was one of the really good things about this book, I felt. It was really good, if heartbreaking, to see how badly Pip was affected by everything that happened…to the point of her having to go to a drug dealer just to get medication in order to be able to sleep.
I really liked the scenes of Pip and Ravi together. I honestly truly love their relationship; they’re so incredibly sweet together, and it’s really obvious that Ravi accepts Pip no matter what…and there’s no time more clear with that than reading towards the end of the book.
I found it interesting how Pip’s idea of ‘saving’ herself was to find a case that was more black and white, with no shades of grey. The previous two books did a really good job of showing the shades of grey in the cases in the previous books…and I liked the fact that this book not only came full circle with Andie’s involvement, but also allowed a deeper glimpse into her character and motivations. In this book, Andie was actually a character who I regretted not being able to learn more about in the first book.
It was a bit disappointing not to see as many of Pip’s notes and interview transcripts, which I thought worked so well in the previous two books. I did really like seeing Pip interacting with Nat, thogh, and them actually being friends by the time the third book came along. Nat was a character who really suffered in book one, only to have it all dredged up in the second book…and part of me felt that she got some closure in this third book. Plus, I liked seeing Cara appear more in this book, along with her sister…though I absolutely hated seeing Lauren and Anthony, who were almost worse than the killer in this book. After all, they accused Pip of making everything up about Jamie in book two…something that could have been extremely damaging to the whole case.
While this book was harder to read than the previous two, I still did find it good to read, although I ended the book with some very mixed feelings. Still, I’d say that it’s definitely worth reading. I love Pip and Ravi, and I’d love to read more books with them in. Plus, my understanding is that there will be a TV series of the books soon…and I definitely intend to watch that when it comes out.
I’ve come a long way since I saw one of the first Mission Impossible films, where I sat with my coat over my head for the movie (I really didn’t want to watch it). I barely even remember what happened in that movie, apart from there being someone getting shot in the stomach.
The Mission Impossible movies are similar to the Fast and Furious franchise, in that they really do stretch my suspension of disbelief. The opening scene starts with a submarine under attack by a threat that shows up on their radar…but the attacking vessel doesn’t behave normally and eventually disappears, but unfortunately not before the submarine is destroyed and everyone on board is killed.
This movie stretches towards science fiction with the enemy being an AI who’s evolved to think for itself, becoming known as The Entity. And this Entity is searching for a key that’s able to control it…or, in Ethan Hunt’s case, to destroy it.
The action in this movie is pretty good, but I have to say that some of the characters felt a bit two-dimensional. The main one was Grace. I really like Hayley Atwell as an actor, but the character she portrayed in this movie just felt very bland. There was no real depth to her, so her actions at the end of the movie just felt completely forced. And to be honest, I really didn’t see why Ethan cared about her. In his shoes, I probably would have just let her experience the consequences of her own actions. After all, he tried to save her multiple times…and she really didn’t bring all that much to the table at the end of it. Certainly not as much as Ilsa did. And for a ‘bad’ character shown to have more depth to them, I would have been far more interested in that storyline being explored with Paris.
I did find it interesting to see Gabriel, an enemy from Ethan’s past, working with the Entity. It was interesting to see Ethan and his team have to fight against an enemy with complete and total control over technology, able to hack into their comms and surveillance cameras…effectively rendering them unable to trust their own technology.
There were a lot of good action and tension moments in this movie, even if it was a little predictable at times. I don’t think I’d get anything out of watching the movie again, at least not any time soon, but I do intend to watch part two.
I do enjoy horror movies, and I’ve seen all of the Insidious movies to date…so when I saw this movie advertised, I was immediately interested in watching it.
The previous movie in this franchise ended with both Josh and his son, Dalton, repressing their memories of their time of being able to astral project and enter the Further. Originally, it seemed like that was the ending of the franchise. After all, with the memories entirely repressed, how could there be any memories from the Further?
Well, it seems like the Further…and specifically, the Lipstick-Face Demon…isn’t finished with Josh and his family yet. Josh doesn’t remember being able to astral project, and he doesn’t remember the Further, or the traumatic experiences his family and he went through there. Unfortunately, this has resulted in Josh becoming ‘foggy’. He doesn’t remember the Further, but he is also struggling with memory problems…and not being able to engage with his children, resulting in him and his wife separating and a clear divide between him and Dalton especially.
It’s not very clear what triggers the opening of the red door, but the movie is suitably creepy leading up to the appearance of the Lipstick-Demon. I was a bit disappointed not to see more of the Further, however. In the previous movies, I thought the Further was the most interesting and creepy part…and honestly, it would have been nice to see more of it in this movie.
I did think there were some really good creepy moments in this movie. As a viewer, there were a couple of things I saw that the characters didn’t, which was a good and different way of drawing out the fear. There were a couple of really disgusting scenes, though, that kind of ruined the horror for me. I honestly felt that the over the top scene with the ghost being sick ruined some of the movie for me.
I liked the link in with the previous Insidious movies and what had happened there. It was also really good to learn more about Josh’s own past and his family history. I also really liked Chris as a character; I loved her friendship with Dalton, and the fact that she was so enthusiastic about helping him figure out what was going on. Plus, she felt very much like the voice of reason in this movie – which is sadly lacking in so mnay horror movies.
I did enjoy this movie, and it was great to see a couple of cameos from some of the other characters in the franchise. It would be good to see more of the Further in future installments of this franchise…since I can’t imagine everything is now calm and peaceful. Besides. A movie franchise that works well isn’t going to end any time soon…looking at Mission Impossible and Fast and Furious, to name just two.
So…I have to say that I wasn’t planning on going to this event, at all. I love conventions…I love meeting actors and I love getting autographs. But I hate how crowded and how many people there are at the signing events like Showmasters. It’s why I mostly go to Starfury events, because even though there’s a lot of people there, it isn’t overwhelming in the same way…and that’s mainly thanks to the main organiser and his staff. I was also reluctant to go to this event because I’d bought tickets three separate times with the expectation/hope of meeting Clark Gregg…and each time had failed. And the last cancellation had occurred last year, when I was in the hospital recovering from nearly dying from a combination of DKA and sepsis, so…yeah.
Anyway, one of my friends was going to this event…and he wanted me to go with him, because I’m always organised. I make sure I have a clear list of whose autograph I want and what times the photos are that I want. And when I’m at a convention with other people, I automatically organise them too. So my friend wanted me with him so I could be the organiser. Even so, I was still reluctant to buy a new diamond pass for Clark Gregg until eight days before the event, when I saw him reposting the schedule for LFCC. I literally said to my friend, ‘This is a good sign, right?’
I actually ended up getting two diamond passes, one for Clark Gregg and one for Mike Colter. Because I hate being later in the day to conventions, I pretty much insisted to my friend that I didn’t want to risk getting there after the initial opening time of 9am…especially considering that last year, Showmasters stopped allowing people into the event and operated on a ‘one in, one out’ system. So we got the train to Bournemouth Friday night…and got the coach to London in the early hours of Saturday morning (1:30am, to be exact). So we did get to the venue about two and a half hours before the opening time, which was fine by me…but unfortunately, my body refused to sleep on the coach, so I was pretty tired by the time we got to the event. Also unfortunately, I managed to knock my sensor for my blood sugar off my arm…so I was left with only my testing strips and constantly needing to prick my finger to check my blood sugar.
We were told to queue up at a particular entry, but about 40 minutes after being in one place, we were told we had to go to a different area to queue. Unfortunately, by this time, the line was pretty long, which meant that those who’d been at the front of the line ended up nearer the back…and considering a lot of those were people on access (including myself and my friend), it wasn’t so good to end up at the back of the line, especially since there were no chairs to sit on in sight.
We were let in to the diamond pass collection earlier than the event opened, although there was a lot of confusion, as I had my diamond passes and my friend didn’t…but since we were both on access (or extra help), I didn’t want to risk us getting separated. Eventually, my friend was able to have a seat outside to wait for me…and I got in and was able to collect my diamond passes, although it did take them a while to find my Mike Colter pass, since I’d only bought it the day before.
Once we were inside the venue, it was early enough that I wanted to try and get all of the autographs (I wanted four; my friend didn’t want any) before the photos started at 11:30. When we got in, most of the guests weren’t there, so I collected virtual queue tickets for Jessica Henwick (13) and David Wenham (21). Then I joined the queue for Clark Gregg’s autograph.
Clark Gregg was very nice to talk to. I had a lot of trouble deciding on the photo I wanted to get signed. Unfortunately, there was just too much choice. In the end, I picked up a picture which had Phil Coulson and Nick Fury in it…although if I’d had the money, I probably would have got one of the others. (I thought about the one with Phil Coulson and Steve Rogers, but unfortunately, Coulson was a bit blurry in that, so I put the photo down again).
When I got to the front of the autograph line, I told him I was really happy that he was there (I kept the diamond pass up until last year, when I finally gave up on meeting him and requested a voucher that I then used for a couple of other guests in 2022). I think he was happy to hear that…I mentioned that I was sure he’d had a long trip, but he told me he’d been in Europe for the past three weeks, to make sure he actually made it, and had been in London for the past couple of days, so it hadn’t been as long as it could have been. So while the autograph queue was massive, it didn’t feel like a production line.
The next person I picked up an autograph from was David Wenham…but I was getting the autograph as a gift for another person, so I’m not going to share a picture here. But he was such a genuinely nice person, I did regret not getting an autograph from him as well. Maybe if he comes to another event, I might take the opportunity to meet him for myself.
The third person I went to get an autograph from was Jessica Henwick…and her queue was really long as well, which wasn’t surprising. She’s not only a big Marvel guest, she’s also been in Game of Thrones and The Matrix: Resurrections. I was a bit torn about whether to get an autograph from her as Bugs or Colleen and ultimately decided on Bugs, but…I was very tempted by a visually stunning picture of her character in Game of Thrones. I sort of wish I’d picked up a second autograph as well. Ah, well. Maybe another year.
She was also someone who seemed to really enjoy being there and talked with people…and was very happy and smiley, so a genuinely good meet.
The final autograph I got was, of course, Mike Colter. I accidentally made use of my Extra Help wristband; when I joined the queue, I was questioned, and when I said I was a diamond pass, the staff member said he needed to ask what to do. So I added that I was extra help, since I was worried I’d be asked to come back later. Instead, I ended up being taken to the front of the line. So sorry to the other people I skipped past! I honestly hadn’t intended for that to happen.
Anyway, Mike was also nice and friendly. I didn’t know which photo to get signed and asked him if he had a favourite. He told me all of them, but also that he had quite a few back at his house that he thought he should have brought with him. I’m fairly happy with the photo I did get signed.
I also liked him in the movie Breakthrough, which I saw at the cinema quite a while ago. Similar to Clark Gregg, I was supposed to meet him a few years back, but unfortunately, that convention company closed, so that ended up not happening.
I got those autographs pretty quickly, which was good. Me and my friend got to have a look around some of the stalls, which was fun. I found a comic book that I wanted to go back and get, but…unfortunately, it got snapped up before I got back. I did look at the others, but none of them caught my attention in the same way. I did glance at the book stalls, but none of them really grabbed me.
My first photo of the three I got was with Clark Gregg. I made sure my friend was at the photo studio for his photo (they were happening close to each other time wise) and then went to find the photo studio I was meant to be at. (I had a woman ask me where the photo studio I needed to go to was, while I was trying to make arrangements for meeting up with my friend after both of our photos. I might have been a little short with her when saying I was in the middle of sorting something out with my friend, but…please don’t interrupt someone when they’re clearly having a conversation? I did tell her where I thought the photo studio was, but I couldn’t really wait around, as I was running out of time).
Actually, finding the photo studio I was supposed to be in was fairly easy…I had to go towards the massive crowd of people. And because I’m short, I couldn’t see anything. So I had to call out to ask what was going on…and then fight my way through the group of people pressing in close, since extra help meant I needed to be at the front. (Honestly, this is one of the things that Showmasters is bad about – letting people crowd around and effectively stop those who need to from getting through). In any case, I was able to fight my way through and join the queue…and I was able to finally get my photo taken with Clark Gregg.
After I’d got that photo and my friend had queued up for two of his (but been told he had to come back later, as he didn’t have diamond passes), we went to get lunch, which was…ridiculously expensive. £15 for a burger and fries…though I have to say, they didn’t scrimp on the amount. Still, the food was pretty basic in taste. And there were too many people around, that it triggered my need to ‘get away’. Fortunately, I was able to stay in place while my food was cooked, but as soon as I had it in hand, I had to get away from the crowd. I fortunately found a place I could sit on the floor with my back against the wall and not many people around. (The lack of seating was atrocious).
After lunch and another bit of browsing, my friend and I ended up back upstairs for our next two photos. This unfortunately was another problem, as I wasn’t up to going up and down the stairs (thanks, diabetes, for making me tired out more than I used to be), so we had to get the lift. And there was one lift…and lots of people needing to get the lift. And I didn’t mind waiting in the queue, but if you’re waiting for the lift, please don’t stand around having a conversation when the lift reaches the floor and refuse to get in until someone has to ask you! (I also wish there’d been a better system for waiting for the lift, as people tried to form two separate lines).
I did get to have a massage from a Mobile Massage company, who were at the event. I have a lot of tension in my neck, shoulders and back, so the massage, while a bit painful due to the pressure, was definitely helpful! And it was a really good system, with people paying what they wanted between £15 and £50. I paid £30, although if it had been in a quieter/calmer location, it would have been more. Unfortunately, although I did my best, relaxing entirely just wasn’t an option.
My other two photos were good and went off without a hitch. Mike requested no full body hugs, which was fair enough (I’m not good with physical contact myself, so always try to pay attention to how comfortable the actors are. I basically have to spend weeks/months mentally preparing myself for the huge sensory overload I’ll experience when I’m at conventions).
Anyway…despite the difficulty with being at the convention, I did still enjoy myself. I was able to tick two actors off my specific wishlist (Clark Gregg and Mike Colter), and I enjoyed meeting Jessica Henwick. I do think an event like this needs to have more seating for people with mobility issues…and one lift for a maximum of four people each time was actually quite ridiculous. I was very relieved to finally get out of the event and back to the coach station…and I pretty much fell asleep for most of the journey back.
Signing events are not the same as weekend conventions, but I do think this event could be better, especially when it comes to people crowding the photo op areas. I was able to fight my way through the massive crowd, but what about someone in an actual wheelchair? I don’t want to experience sensory overload every time I go to a Showmasters event, but unless something changes, it’s either that…or not attend again.
Ink of Blood 