Since Mads and Bev have given their 2p worth, I thought I'd join the club - but to be different, I'll give a rough outline of the weekend's events. I've also deliberately left a lot of it vague, to both tease you and not spoil things in case any of the other attendees decide to write in more detail about proceedings.
Saturday, 5am.
The things I do in the name of fun... waking up at a ridiculously early hour on a weekend to travel half way across the country to spend a weekend with a bunch of random people I've met on the internet. On the one hand, I'm a little nervous and apprehensive (for a variety of fairly obvious reasons); on the other I'm excited about finally putting faces and voices to some of the people whose writing I read every day here on TopShelf.
Oh, and there's also the small matter of this being the third bunch of random internet strangers I've met - the first being regulars on this blog (and what could be stranger than fans of a blog of a radio news magazine show?!); the second being fans / participants of this project held last year.
Saturday, 11:15am.
One hundred and fifty miles later (plus a 20 minute stopover at a certain ancient roofless building), I pull into the car park / viewing area at Cerne Abbas, pour myself an instant cappuccino, and await the arrival of "a motley crew with bikes", including one who advised me beforehand "I hope you're not too disappointed by the old hag you'll be meeting." (Needless to say, I was certainly not disappointed - impressed would be more accurate - especially as she was sporting a rather painful looking knee injury, apparently picked up earlier in the week through an unplanned dismount)
Saturday, 11:30am
Four cyclists pull into the car park, two of whom I recognise from photos they've published in various locations, one I recognise from the bicycle she's mounted on (plus the "Specialized" clothing she's wearing), and the fourth (a cycling newbie!) is introduced. Eventually the fifth member of the group walks up from town and introduces himself.
Saturday, lunchtime
After taking photos of the most famous man in Cerne Abbas (who, depending on who you ask, is either a few hundred years old or a few thousand) and being taken on a guided tour of the abbey remains by a cat, it's time to head into Dorchester. By now, everyone's probably got used to the weirdo taking far too many photos to be healthy and muttering something about "panoramas".
Saturday afternoon
Arrive in Dorchester - Martin (the German) apparently ordered a Ford Focus hire car, but because they didn't have an automatic available, was given a Mercedes C Class instead. Talk about an upgrade! Anyway, we visited the Maumbury Rings and had our first set of readings (Mads had chosen "Once Upon a Time in America", Ang had predictably chosen her geographically relevant fanfic "Gaby Heads South"), then headed up to Maiden Castle, where a pair of diminutive (6" high) girls had several photo ops.
Satuday evening
Two course dinner at a pub in a nearby village, plus a few more readings.
Sunday
Corfe Castle, Lulworth Cove and Portland in a big cat - accompanied by some "Sinister" driving directions. We also discovered that metal is stronger than wood, watched steam trains and encountered "The English Civil War Society" (who mercifully didn't decide we were the opposing army!). Plus several more readings, oodles more photos, and a carvery dinner before a quick goodbye as I was dropped off near my B&B.
Monday
The return journey. I diverted via a Roman Villa and Old Sarum, thus pushing the return milage up to 175. Exhausting, but I have plenty of photos to remind me of the weekend. There followed a busy evening of catching up on the oodles of stories posted here over the weekend, and sorting out the photos. Which include a couple of dozen panoramas. Not to mention formally announcing my interest in attending next year's event, whenever / wherever that may be.
Talking of which, I've uploaded them to a private album and delegated access control to Ang and Mads. While the various panoramas could theoretically be made public, it's easier to just dump the lot in a single album. Besides which, it means I can get away with cornier captions that would probably make even less sense to an outsider :)
Comments
Uncanny
We were in that very car park just over 2 weeks ago eating our packed lunch and taking a photo of our tandem with the Giant in the background. It was gloriously sunny and warm, too - definitely shorts and SPD sandals weather. On the way back to our campervan we stopped to watch some people learning how to parascend off a superb slope in the hills to the west of Cerne Abbas. It was a bit of a grovel getting there, I can tell you but the resulting 40mph descent made it seem worthwhile.
Having met Angharad and the rest at Arbor Low (a less spectacular and less popular stone circle than Stonehenge) in Derbyshire I can vouch for the fact that she is far from an old hag. She even looked charming in the rain wearing her anorak and inevitably a little bedraggled. I hadn't realised at the time that the Gabycon was to be held in Dorset though I was aware it was Angharad-land.
Robi
Hi mittfh,
I won't address you by your real name cos you don't disclose it on the net. I'm searching desperately for the piccies but don't seem to be able to access them yet on Maddy's site yet.
Yes it was a wonderful weekend, and I'm very sad that RL issues forced me to leave early during the visit to Corfe castle..
Hopefully we'll meet again at the next Gabycon.
Hugs,
Beverly.
Non-disclosure?
I don't bother mentioning my name here because I figure most of the regulars already know...
...but there's hardly any point in secrecy since it's only a Google away (since I've been using the nickname all over the place for about a decade, it finds about 21,900 results - eek!)
I have permission from Ang to share my photos, but I won't do a direct link, so anyone that's interested, drop me a PM (I'll send the link to Bev)
In the meantime, if anyone's interested in what else I tend to take photos of, feel free to drop by my public gallery. Everything's Creative Commons licensed, so feel free to download and modify anything you find there - the only provisio being you credit me with taking the photo if you republish it (or a derivative) anywhere.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!