[Continued from here.]
Sunday: Started the day with an excellent warm cinnamon bun with apples at Steak Frites, plated as though it was a dinner entree. Given all of the great food I had over the long weekend, I don’t know why something so simple impressed me, but it did. Attended the “Neil Gaiman and Gary K Wolfe in Conversation” panel, which ended up simply being a fascinating conversation between Neil and Gary which ranged over all sorts of interesting topics. I think it was probably the best of the four Neil events I attended. Later I went to a kaffeeklatsch with jaylake, which was actually the first kaffeeklatsch I’d ever attended. We had a full table with lots of interesting conversation, and I ended up learning things about Jay’s writing that I actually hadn’t known before. I could have just talked with Jay about some of the same topics, but having other people ask different questions, or ask the same questions different ways, worked out pretty well.
Next up was the string of Hugo events. I was at part of the rehearsal, which was an interesting look behind the scenes. Then I got to attend the pre-Hugo reception, where I met several people, including Neil Gaiman. Thanks again for introducing me, jaylake! I also carefully did not wish David Anthony Durham good luck, and thereby avoided jinxing him. As for the Hugo ceremony itself, it was the first time I’d ever actually gone to the Hugos (this was only my second Worldcon after all), and I think sitting in the second row with matociquala, stillsostrange, arcaedia, jaylake and calendula_witch was pretty much the best way to experience it. It was great to see David win the Campbell and have the diadem (it’s not a tiara!) placed on his head by maryrobinette, and it was even better to be able to see matociquala‘s sort of stunned and overwhelmed expression when she won her Hugo. I would have liked to have a couple of the other Hugos go to different people, but all of winners were certainly worthy of the honor. When all of the excitement was over, it was time to trek down to the Delta for the Hugo Losers’ party, and we took turns actually carrying matociquala‘s very heavy (but very lovely) award. While the booze at the party was, to say the least, horrible, I still got to see things like David Anthony Durham looking quite smashing in his new headgear, Scalzi putting his Hugo on his head, and Klages licking Bear’s Hugo, so it was an entertaining time. Plus the whole thing died early enough for me to make it back to the IC bar in time for last call.
Monday: This was the day for driving back, but before I headed out there was time for a very tasty lunch in Chinatown with arcaedia and maryrobinette. Fortunately the drive home was a lot less of a hassle than the drive up had been, even if the mid-drive burger was made from cow rather than elk this time around.
Some of the people I was glad to have the chance to talk to but didn’t mention yet:cristalia, curgoth, katfeete, icedrake, suricattus, as well as non-LJ people like Rani Graff (who I was not actually stalking, despite seeing him everywhere).
People I meant to mention but didn’t: If I knew that, I’d have mentioned them.
Chances of me going to Worldcon 2010 in Melbourne? Slim to none.
Chances of me going to Worldcon 2011 in Reno? Even less.
Overall, I had a great time, and Montreal is definitely a great city. Hopefully it won’t take me 10+ years to make it back there again this time.
