The SA committee hired a great DJ and before I knew it I was dancing (or trying to dance) to Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love,” Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” and other Eighties classics. I boogied for about half an hour, but then I had to leave the dance floor. I’m a lousy dancer and I can only tolerate loud music for so long. I returned to the table and sat with Em, Mark and Kathye. I tried to have a conversation with Kathye, but I found it really hard to hear above the noise level. We both decided to step outside the Banquet Hall for a bit.
Shake your bootie!
We walked into the lounge and came across Gary, Janet, Dar, Eric and Tirza, who were nice enough to let us join them. My eyes were instantly drawn to the swords lying across one table. Gary had brought out Solas, which he had successfully claimed at the Silver Arrow '98 auction. Tirza was displaying a replica of Albion that a friend had designed. Then Janet held out her sword, Orias, which she had won in the draw at the last convention. I never thought that I would be sitting in the presence of any of the Seven Swords of Wayland, so I have to admit that I was duly impressed!
During the conversation I asked Janet and Gary how they thought the convention had gone. They both seemed really pleased, although they were a little disappointed that some of the guests couldn’t come. However, the attendance record had been the best ever, which was certainly encouraging. :-) We also managed to squeeze a few interesting stories out of them about some of the mishaps of the last convention.
After awhile Kathye and I took our leave and went off in search of the others. We had decided to have an earlier night since we would be off fairly early in the morning. Kathye, who had been unable to book a hotel or B&B in Edinburgh, was going to stay with me in Stratford-upon-Avon until she had sorted out her plans. Anyway, as we knew we would be up pretty early and our party-hardy friends would stay up late, we thought we had better say our goodbyes.
We managed to track down Kirsty and Alys, who quickly rounded up the others. As we stood outside the Banquet Hall, Janet appeared and said that some of the certificates were ready and that she would pass them out to the team members from outside Britain. When she returned she was nice enough to take some pictures of us as we posed with the certificates. Then, the hardest part of the evening came: it was time to say goodbye.
Kathye and I hugged everybody and told them how nice it had been to meet them and how much fun we had had at the con. Then we said the usual things friends say to each other about how we’ll see each other again some day. However, in this case, I knew it was true.
I think I will see some of these people again. After all, they’re planning to hold another Silver Arrow convention in 2003, so who knows...? :-)
