Hils's journal

We were bad (or should I say good) fangirls in the morning and skipped out on Fred's panel so we could go to MacDonald's for breakfast and abuse their super-fast free wifi to download SPN. We then headed up to our room and watched it.

Let me tell you this, watching Cas's first episode of S6 with a bunch of Cas fangirls is an awesome experience. I wish I could watch all Cas episodes this way. We flailed and squeed and watched the PROFOUND BOND scene more than once. And I was mocked for drooling over Sam's abs (What? I've been waiting for this since the pre-season promo!)

From the sounds of it we didn't miss much at Fred's panel anyway apart from some creepy dude asking if Fred dreamed about killing people.

We made it down in time for Aldis's panel though and that was a lot of fun. Again I can't really remember a huge amount (there are videos on SuperWiki if you want to know panel details) but he came across as really laid back. He's another one of those renaissance guys who does everything (he designs watches, paints, plays violin) and he clearly loves working on Leverage. I get the impression that the Leverage cast is really tight. He said that he and Christian get into a lot of trouble together and told a story about how they got caught sneaking in after a late night.

But he did say that he'd heard about Matt dancing on stage and demanded he come down so they could have a dance-off.

So Matt arrived just as the panel was about to end and said he'd been asleep as he'd been at the karaoke party until the wee hours. But to his credit he demonstrated The Jerk to Aldis and they had a bit of a dance together. He really is such a good sport about these things.

Oh, and here's a video of it



Matt then did a second panel which was only supposed to be 30 minutes but he joked that he would stand on stage until they physically dragged him away and that because he'd changed the karaoke seating arrangements he took that as proof that he could do whatever he wanted.

On the spur of the moment I decided to ask a question. It's the only time I did this all weekend. So the day before Matt had mentioned he would really love to play Superman in the new movie that's being made so I asked him if he got the role what spin would he put on the character. He very awesomely struck the Superman pose and then said that honestly he'd play it whatever way they asked him to, he'd just be thrilled to get the role.

Apart from that he repeated his Marilyn Monroe shapeshifter impression and the tale of him finding a spider the size of his head next to his shoe

Highlight of the panel had to be his impressions of Sam and Dean though. I have to see if I can find a video of this because it's epic



You may as well have the spider story too



It was awesome and again he gave us his heartfelt thanks for allowing him to come to these events and for wanting to listen to him talk. I would definitely go to a con he was at again.

Next up were the Ghostfacers (Well, the two original members anyway). Again I can't remember a lot of what they said but I was really struck by what good friends they are. I actually thought they must have been friends before SPN but no. I do love that this show seems to have been amazing for forming friendships. I imagine not all shows are like that (in fact I know they're not from talking to Sam Ferris).

Best story was when AJ was talking about working with Jared and he said Jared is so built he actually picked him up and was carrying him around set (while the crew were screaming at Jared in case he dropped AJ and hurt him). Jared gets ribbed a lot at these cons but he seems to have a good sense of humour which I'm guessing is why.

Oh, they also gushed about Misha and said that he'd actually approached them about wanting to be in the Ghostfacers series (at first they thought he was kidding). Apparently they've finally been given permission to air the episode and it was supposed to premiere at the con but they couldn't get it set up in time :( But it's coming soon. I guess they had to hold onto it in case it contradicted what happened on the show (there were some last minute changes to Castiel's character arc which I'll mention when I write up the meet and greet)

So that should be fun!

Mark Sheppard was last and he was just like I expected. He's very dry and sarcastic (but not in a bad way) and he joked a lot about being in every TV show ever. He did say that the one show he hasn't been in that he wanted to do was Doctor Who. A week later it was announced that he's going to be in it. I am now completely convinced that he is an actualfax crossroads demon. Either that or he made one hell of a deal.

So straight after his panel we did photo ops. I met lizajaneok beforehand as she is a HUGE fan and was totally freaking out about it (I really hope she won't mind me sharing this story as it's adorable). So we stood in line and I was trying to get her to breathe as I thought she was going to hyperventilate or something. Honestly, she works closely with Misha but gets like this about Mark - too cute!

So when we got inside we were almost at the front of the line and Lisa just froze, staring at him. Eventually one of the crew got her to shuffle forward and I offered to go first. I had my photo (which I kind of hate) and then did my own random act of kindness by explaining to Mark how nervous Lisa was and I asked him to give her a hug or something.

I all but had to carry her out afterwards ;)


Mark looks like he's about to talk or something. Meh. Won't be getting him to sign this at A5

We went to sit down so Lisa could recover and brihana25 and a few others came over to see if she was okay. LOL! They said they were going out for dinner and asked if we wanted to come (awesome thing about cons is being invited out for dinner by people you don't even know). Lisa had some thing she needed to do and I had to get ready for the dessert party so we opted to stay and eat in the hotel.

I had asparagus (again. IDK) and we split some fries as neither of us were massively hungry. I decided I wanted a beer but had no idea what to get as all the ones listed were beers I had never even heard of. Lisa and the waitress helped me choose and I wound up with one called Blue Moon. It came with a slice of orange in it. I thought this was some quirky American thing but Lisa said not.



It was surprisingly good considering American beer has a really bad reputation. Turned out later that it's actually Belgian. LOL!

After food it was time for me to get autographs. The Ghostfacers were first and as soon as I opened my mouth AJ asked what part of the UK I was from. I said I was from York, which they had visited last year to do a Ghostfacers con (apparently York is the most haunted city in Europe) so AJ gave me a little British dedication on my autograph. Travis, of course, then had to copy him



When I saw Aldis I mentioned that I would be seeing him again in Birmingham. He said he was bringing his mother with him for that and that it was her birthday so he wanted us all to sing happy birthday to her. I said of course we would and he seemed pleased (take note A5 peeps)

Mark, as always, was himself. I said the Birmingham thing again and said something about returning to the motherland. Mark said he doesn't consider the UK the motherland any more. He asked what part I was from and when I said York he said that York Minster was a beautiful building. I agreed and said it was a shame they charge you to go inside these day.

And that was it.

So after autographs I headed up to have a sit down for a bit and got changed for the dessert party. Watched the end of SPN which was airing a day late because of the stupid basketball and then we headed down.

Creation complaint #2 - Maybe I'm just used to the Showmasters cons where at the gold pass party you get free booze and a decent amount of time talking to the actors. Here the booze was really expensive ($7 for a really small glass of wine) and the dessert was ice-cream and that was it. I was not impressed.

bindaroonie abandoned the VIP table to come and sit with us which was nice as I had barely seen her all weekend. There was a centerpiece challenge and since we had nothing prepared we improvised and made a devil's trap out of fantales (Australian candy) and koala bear keychains (which the guests were invited to take)




And here we are dressed up looking pretty hot

We literally had sixty seconds with each guest. Matt made the most of it by giving everyone free hugs and Mark was working at his own pace and stayed for about five minutes (I think because he was enjoying eating the candy)

We did have a long chat with Mark's bodyguard, Dave, though who was pretty awesome and kind of made sure Mark stayed a bit longer because we'd been complaining about it. He said he was going to London with Mark next week and when we asked what Mark was filming he said 'Well, it's not any of the shows he's in at the moment' Makes sense now the Doctor Who announcement has been made.

Mark also told us he likes to keep it a secret what he's going to be in so people are surprised. I told him I actually squeed out loud when he showed up in Chuck and he said he was coming back to do more of that.

When he left I said 'See you in Birmingham' and he said 'Come and find me in the bar' LOL

After we'd had our minute with each of the guests we decided to ditch the party and head up to bindaroonie's room. Really glad I did that as, like I said, I'd barely seen her all weekend. Her mum joined us a little while later and we sat up drinking and chatting until about 2am. They were both awesome so I'm really glad I took the time to hang out with them. But I came to regret it in the morning when I had to face Jared and Misha first thing. LOL. More on that in my next report ;)