Strontium Bitchings

 I've mostly gone back into lockdown again because the southwest is a Covid plague pit. And I have to trek to Scotland at the end of Nov to prevent my Mum from travelling down here. But I ventured out to go to the Bristolcon one day convention at the Hilton Doubletree. I'd offered to be a minion/gopher a while back, and more recently they'd asked me if I could work on the reg desk first thing, because the committee member who does Membership had a doctor appointment and wouldn't be able to get to the con until after the reg desk had opened.

I didn't go to the 'unofficial' Friday night events and 'bar con'. 

COVID VS THE CON
I arrived at 8am on the Saturday and there was a headless chicken feel to start with, as the Chairman had gone down with Covid. So there was a lot of folk running about saying "Where's the signage for the panel rooms?" and "Who has a key to X room?" because with 2 committee members missing, the logistics were crumbling a bit. Insert your own swan metaphor here.

Reg desk had been pared down to handing out badges, and programme schedule only. Covid meant no goodie bags, no souvenir booklet, etc. We also were not taking walk ins, so there was no cashbox, card reader or receipt books etc. And the dealers got sent to the Dealers Room to get their badges etc. So the reg desk queue moved REALLY fast. Everyone was very good at doing socially distanced queuing, and hovered out of the way until we waved them forward.

In fact, masks and social distancing was very much a Bristolcon thing. Apparently there were minions tasked with politely asking people to use masks or display their exemption lanyards... and they complained to the Committee that they were bored and had nothing to do!  Go Bristolcon membership! 

And one public spirited panelist turned up at Ops/Reg Desk in the afternoon to say that she was dropping out of being on her panel, because she was starting to lose her voice and didn't want to make people paranoid that she might have Covid. 

PANELS ETC
There wasn't actually a huge amount of panels I wanted to see at the con. There was a heavy fantasy bias this year. At least it seemed that way to me, given that I prefer SF to fantasy. I went to:
1. GoH interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky - a superb chat about space opera with Gareth Powell. Highlight of the con!
2. New Weird Britain - UK folklore and how it is being used in fantasy & horror.
3. Why is there no democracy in epic fantasy?
4. How well does science fiction predict the future?
5. For the Empire!  Are SF&F stories of fantasy or galactic empires tackling colonialism & exploitation?
6. A bit of the closing ceremony - it took 40 mins to get my food from the hotel bar, so I missed the start. 

I also meant to go to Anna Smith-Spark's GoH interview, but got chatting in the bar and list track of the time.  Ditto going round the Art Show (though I have looked at all the online art displays). I did, as usual spend far too much money in the Dealer Room. 

SOCIALISING
It was lovely to see various people in the flesh for the first time in 18 months to 2 years. There were lots of "what geeky stuff got/is getting you through the pandemic?" chats. 

I only stayed about half an hour after the Closing Ceremony finished, because I didn't want to spend an evening in a crowded bar, even if people were being good about masks. I struggle enough to hear what folk are saying in crowded bars when they are not muffled by a mask.

 Every time the government or the media bangs on about Stay Alert I can't help thinking of that old, old, joke...

Be Alert!
Britain needs more lerts!