Spring Memorabilia NEC 2011 – Day 2 Review

If you ever go and stay at a service area hotel, my one piece of advice would be to make sure you know which side of the motorway it is on. There’s nothing like dragging your luggage over a bridge from one side of the motorway to the other to make your feet ache more after a hard days con. Thankfully there was a sneaky way to get the car round without having to drive 10 miles in the opposite direction, big thanks to the hotel staff for providing a map.

The clocks going forward right in the middle of a con weekend was never going to be good. But despite this I was so tired from the day before that it didn’t really affect me. There have been reports that Matt’s iPhone didn’t register the clock change, I think it was more to do with over sleeping ! I was wearing the Series 5 – Victory of the Daleks costume for the Sunday. Which meant no mop so I had my hands free to do some shopping, unless you count the times I needed to deploy the jammy dodger.

After a good quality breakfast, a must for all cons, we left the carpark in good time and began our journey towards the NEC. With the words “It’s only 15 minutes down the motorway” ringing in my ears I decided not to setup the sat nav, and took the lead. Well, there may have been a few, slight, technical navigational errors on my part on the way there and we ended up during a brief tour of the Birmingham motorway system. I still maintain that I was going the right way to the NEC….Industrial Estate!

After that detour, we made it to the NEC, with yours truly slightly flustered! The walk to the carpark took us past a group of Stormtroopers who had setup a temporary check-point, no doubt looking for droids. They insisted on searching my autograph wallet and, despite my attempts to hide them, they found Matt’s porn autographs! I don’t think the excuse of “They’re his, not mine” really worked. They referred to the pictures as contraband and started to wave them about, whilst also telling everyone walking by to watch out if they saw me with a camera!

Once back into the safety of the NEC, I bemoaned the fact that the Empire probably didn’t have a complaints procedure whilst hoping that nothing else could wrong. Sadly it did. We quickly found out that Craig Charles wouldn’t be appearing today, slightly frustrating I have to admit as I have now got every member of the main Red Dwarf cast to sign my DVD cover except him. I consoled myself by vowing to spend the money on something else.

We made our way over to see John Levene as both Matt and myself wanted to get his autograph. What happened next was by far the funniest moments of the weekend and firmly cemented John with the prestigious title of Guest of the Weekend. He pulled Matt up for having a crooked tie and, whilst tidying him up, told us a story of how he managed to influence the political career of President Obama. During Obama’s first TV appearance John saw that his tie was crooked, knowing that this used to be a sign of poor standards, John rang his Democrat Senator friend and told him of this potential faux pas and how this could make Obama look. After a few minutes, the next time the live shot went back to Obama, his tie had been straighten and John maintains that without him anything could have happened.

Matt’s Bryant senses were tingling at this point and so we had to go and say hi to Nicola. Jemma and myself stood around and patiently waited whilst Matt said hello to his favourite companion, no special favours though as he had to queue. Now laden with Nicola Bryant merchandise we had to take a quick trip back to the car to deposit the goods.  Timing it just right we were able to see the 501st Garrison and the Reel Icons guys all lining up outside for a big photoshoot. It was impressive to see all the Stormtroopers, Darth Vader and various other Star Wars characters lining up along with the likes of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Once returning from the car we had a well earned coffee break, watched Matt try his luck at being a clown on some wheel step thingy then proceeded round the hall again. Both Jemma and myself managed to get some good Sunday deals on merchandise and Matt bought a massive autograph holder which I ended up carrying. He did actually need it though as we found ourselves being paparazzi again for another visit to the glamour models, I think Matt must’ve kept them in business over the weekend!

As with all cons, thing have to come to an end. Not before there was time for a quick stop at the American Candy vendor who we visit at every con, I have to say their coconut M&Ms are great. So, after dragging Matt away from Nicola, it was time to get on our way. We said our goodbyes and with my sat nav back in it’s proper place off I went….driving down a private access road instead of heading for the exit, at least Matt and Jemma weren’t there to see it!

Advertisement