kennahijja | Sectus! (Reply)

... oh wow, was it ever *brilliant*! I've had so little sleep during the past week, and am still running high on giddy excitement, with random goofy grinning every time I remember details. It was amazingly done from the opening night to the programming to the *breathtaking* Yule Ball and I'm still in awe of everybody who's had a hand in organising it. Wow. The sheer amount of work and effort and passion that went into it!

Seeing

chthonya and

lazy_neutrino again was just amazing, as was meeting all those wonderful people from my f-list and some I've never even encountered online before.

Highlights - too many to count, really: watching

chthonya driving a bulky van through London traffic like a pro, being huggled by

annephoenix at reception, squeeing over meeting people like

waterbird,

catsintheattic,

jaelle_n_gilla and omg,

mijan all through the opening night,

waterbird's Ron/Lucius gift, seeing

rowan_r's Revenge Tragedy performed, the Darkfic and

chthonya's Lucius panels on Friday, lunch with

parlophone,

painless_j and

leni_jess, breakfasts with

fluffyllama,

trobadora and

lazy_neutrino (so *sorry* I didn't catch you again to say good-bye, love), holding DH in my hands at 1.30am at the Waterstones, reading it together with

chthonya amidst giggling, moaning and bursting into tears, THE BOOK itself (ohmyeffinggods!), the Yule Ball with its amazing decoration and costumes and ceilidh music, Itchquidd in the park (damn the mosquitoes, every one of them but was it *ever* fun), watching smut-art in progress during the picnic (and working up the nerve to talk to

dementordelta, ohgods, I'm such a fangirl), drinks and chat with

riibu afterwards, and a *wonderful* chilling-out night with

annephoenix,

dracos_doll and

chthonya. And of course my copy of DH with all the signatures :).

And tons more people whom I was so happy to meet, if way too shortly -

ariadneelda,

blue_braces,

dark0feenix,

dracofiend,

snakeling,

son_of_darkness,

yamato__ishida (and Harry!),

aunty_marion,

dacro,

gatewaygirl,

melusinahp (not remotely enough time, but... wow!),

sulky_rhino and

tien_riu! With apologies to everyone I failed to mention, but whoever knows me in real life will be aware that being braindead is not an occasional condition of mine, but a way of life :).

Things that reduced me to tears: the Yule Ball ticket gift from

annephoenix (who is, in person, even more incredibly amazing than she's online!), the beautiful Ron-and-Lucius bookmarks from Waterbird, having to go home again.

Things learned: that I love fandomers (even more than I'd already thought), lots about HP from the panels, the end of canon, and that I'll never be cut out to be a proper shipper ;).

Regrets: that it's over already, that I only just managed to see

amanuensis1,

moshes and

magic_at_mungos for a second, and never managed to meet

fleshdress and a few others. The LJ scare just when everybody was occupied with other things. And again, that it's over... Oh, and a little bit that canon is over now (but definitely not *how* it ended, well, apart from one teensy little bit that nobody liked anyhow, *g*).

I've met *so* many brilliant people I had not even *time* to be a scaredy-cat, how cool is *that*??? And I got to visit the National Gallery again on Tuesday, after navigating the tube without any messups.

There will be a by now totally obsolete post on DH tomorrow (done by everybody and their housecat already, so don't expect much, ok!).

Again - it was *so* wonderful!