Start Press

Special guest Mat Irvine (SFX for Dr Who and Blake's Seven) has arrived and has a selection of props and models on display in the dealers' room. Mat will be available periodically to talk about his exhibits.

No plan survives contact with the enemy … part 7

An update to the Read Me grid - the launch party for Parietal Games, the SF Foundation's collection of critical works by and on M. John Harrison, will take place on the mezzanine at 19:00. Cheap wine - free if you bring or buy a copy of the book!

Media Programme

Sunday’s Presentations include repeats of Doctor Who (19:00-20:00), Alan Garner’s ‘Red Shift’, Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘The Breakthrough’, ‘The Earth Dies Screaming’, some hyper-cute Anime as well as ‘The Call of the Cthulhu’.

Piping Aboard Auctioneer

The Concussion committee would like to thank Rog Peyton for running the Art Auction.

Pirate Command Structure (arrr!)

If you are press-ganged into working in the “SCRAP” Robot Workshop, you will be in the crew of either Pirate Queen ‘Salty Thighs’ Eira or Captain ‘Crab Trousers’ SMS.

Thankfully you'll be placed under the direct command of Shipwrights Alex ‘Lash Up’ Holden or ‘Barnacle Bazooka’ ... who are marginally less barking.

Lost and Not Yet Found

If a red con bag is found containing a blue folder labelled “expenses” is found, could it please be handed in to Ops or given to any of the G.U.S.T. team. Rather urgent!

Mandy Todd

Orbital Cleavage

Ken MacLeod acted in the “Straight Man” role to Dee, Sue and Judi’s discussion of the female form in Science Fiction art. People were sitting on the floor, desperate to hear the panel and see the projector. We learnt, among other things, that Hollywood dresses are held up with “tit tape” which also doubles as “toupee tape”.

Sue Quotes:

When asked to introduce herself Sue Mason asked the audience if there was anyone in the audience who didn’t know her. Only Fellow Plokta Cabalist Dr Plokta raised his hand.

SMS to Sue: Are you saying that Jim Burns’ pinup artwork is a bit too intellectual for you?

Sue: I bought this book of pornography as a present, but I kept it and read all the articles.

Overheards

About ½r’s punch: “I suppose the fruit has vitamin C in. The fruit has vitamin C₂H₅OH in”.

At the ZZ9 Sales Table: “I’m going to get my mum to pay for this Beeblebear. I was going to get a tattoo, so she will be quite pleased.”

Where have all the handles gone?

My room has a chest of drawers with no handles, but that's not as bad as the changing rooms at the swimming pool where one has to open the cupboard doors by pulling on the key...

Interaction Freebies

CDs, Hardback Souvenir Books, and Posters are available from the Interaction desk in the Dealer’s Room.
Future Eastercons…

CONVOY

The 2007 Eastercon to be held in the Liverpool Adelphi with guests Judith Clute, Peter Dickinson, Robin McKinley, and Sharyn November. An attending membership is £45.

ORBITAL

The 2008 British National Science Fiction Convention to be held in the Heathrow Radisson Edwardian with guests Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, China Miéville, Charles Stross, and fan guest of honour Rog Peyton. An attending membership is £35 (rising to £45 on 1 June 2006).

Party On

Sunday, Staffa Room 21:30-23:00: Combined “Denver in 2008” and “Montreal in 2009” Worldcon Bid Party

Flash Fiction Workshop

The organisers would like to thank all participants who got up in time to join in the writing at 9:00 on Saturday. We hope you find the feedback sessions useful and fun.

Kate Bodley

Tolkien Quiz Winners

Rosenblum's Plus One won the Tolkien Quiz. Tol Nim were only third, due largely to their inability to bribe the quizmaster, and provoking him into asking them especially hard questions: who was the second membership secretary of the Tolkien Society, indeed! The Tolkien Society would like to thank the filkers for giving them lots of extra time.

Restaurant Reviews

Top Deck at the Ferry, Anderston Quay, Glasgow, G3 8DL. 0141 248 5376

The Ferry: a boat moored on the Clyde towards the City Centre. A pleasant 10-15 minutes walk along the river. Excellent service and substantial food at a reasonable price. We particularly enjoyed the macaroni cheese and the salmon stack (£6.90 and £9.95 respectively). NB The restaurant is accessed via the gangplank furthest from the SECC lest you try the other one and think it is closed.

Kate Bodley

Two more places to eat ...

Very fancy haggis neeps and tatties at 78 (78 Vincent Street, 0141 2487878)

The main courses less impressive (and my friends duck was dry), but the Scottish cheese platter was large and luscious. The French syrah was a perfect.

Mix and match cultures at the Rotunda (hot Thai mussels and duck in plum sauce!)

Bathroom Design (continued)

It is evident that Those Who Design Hotel Bathrooms are deeply ethereal people who labour to preserve the Mystery of the Shower from the Unwashed Uninitiated. Observe the sublime perfection with which they place the taps where they are not only hidden behind an impenetrable glass screen and thus inaccessible to those lesser mortals who have not yet achieved the First Step of Cleanliness, viz Stepping Into the Bath; but are further protected, once set into motion by the ill-modulated attempts of the neophyte, by a Scalding Stream of Divine Fluid. To proceed further into the Mysteries of the Shower, the nervous postulant must undergo the Ordeal of plunging a naked arm into the Purifying Stream. What Sublime Architectonics! What Excellent Device of Ritual Initiation!

(To be continued)

Wanted

Lots of really nice photos of our guests. Please bring images to the newsletter room in Rockall, where they will happily copy your images off your camera.

Judi Hodgkin

[Although avoiding the deadline hour (and beyond when we're running late - again) will help with keeping us happily copying -ed.]

Don’t throw them out

Any old laptops being thrown out by you people with superfluous technology? A small radical charity has need of two in the cause of reforesting Scotland. If you have old kit then please contact webmaster@reforestingscotland.org

Emma Chapman

Leather Feathers

It's Easter, it's Glasgow and there is a leather shop closing down sale on at Leather Gear, 6/8 King St., Glasgow G1 (tel.041 552 6139), open Sunday and Monday 11:00-17:00'ish. Enjoy.

Running On

As if (co)running an Eastercon was not enough work, one of our co-chairs (modesty forbids reveiling her name ... oops…) decided that, deep down, they really, really wanted to be part of the filkers, and limbered up with some chords. Fortunately for everyone else at the USSG room party these operatic 'bon mots' were short-lived, which left everyone else free to comment on how many people there were (more than the Marx brothers' State Room scene from 'A Night at the Opera'), and how come the Scandinavian room party already had complaints about the noise?

Alisdair Hepburn

There is hope!

Thoughts that the younger generation are mutating into square-eyed zombies are challenged by the comparative attendance of the children's video programme and the cyberdrome workshop. Noggin is good, but robotic pirates are better! Go Robot!!!!

Photographs wanted of Masquerade, BC and everything. Please deliver them to the Newsletter Room

Programme Item reviews wanted. Please deliver them to the Newsletter Room or email them as below even after the convention has finished.

Sudoku 2

Just to remind you, to solve the Sudoku puzzle, simply place numbers in the empty cells so that each row, column and 3x3 block contains all the different numbers. (This means no number can appear twice in any row, column or 3x3 block.)

Sudoku 2 shouldn’t be too hard after the easy start, Sudoku 3 will be the difficult one.

These Sudoku puzzles were created by Tero Ykspetäjä.

Religious News

Rejoice! For the events at this con are being closely observed by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and the religious ceremony to combat global warming (also known as “Beyond Cyberdrome”) will be feared on the Church's official website (http://www.venganza.org/index.htm).

The Missionary Position

Those seeking guidance may ask it of the high priestess of the sisters of Neptune who holds the gospel of the flying spaghetti monster. Ask her to read out a quote just for you!

Thought for the Day:

In the beginning was the Word, & the Word was “Arrrgh!”

Piraticus 13:7 - The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.