Tuesday 31 October 2017

UK PonyCon 2017 report, part 4: Monday

All good things must come to an end, and UK PonyCon 2017 had been a very good thing indeed. Hawthorn and Rorschfox had gone home after the con on Sunday, but Snowkitten, Bridle Timeout and I were still present to have breakfast together on Monday morning at the slightly more civilised hour of eight o'clock. The breakfast was table service this time, but the stuff I ate was still a mix of fry-up and Continental.

After retrieving our bags and checking out of the Premier Inn, the three of us lugged our stuff to the bus stop, and amazingly (this being First) one turned up almost at once. We needed two buses to get us to Bristol Parkway station, and Bridle did a little spam-zapping on UK of Equestria during the trip. The first bus deposited us at Cribbs Causeway shopping centre, where we made the brief detour to Pegasus Road, just because.

Our second bus brought us to Parkway, where we ran into a couple of fellow UKPC-goers. One, a first-timer, opined that "Everyone was so friendly!" which was great to hear. On the platform, we saw one of the first in-service Class 800 trains, though naturally it was going to London and we poor Midlands-bound folk had to put up with ye olde CrossCountry Voyager. Still, we all managed to get seats, so no complaints there!

Unbeknownst to us until a quick tweet exchange, Oilyvalves was on the same train, a couple of coaches back. We arranged to meet at New Street, though Bridle stayed on the train as it was continuing to his northern England home town. The other three of us headed for Muffin Break, appropriately enough, where we had a nice relaxed chat. I chose an apple and cinnamon muffin, my favourite flavour and suitable for the con theme.

Eventually, the time came to go home. Oilyvalves went to get his train to the East Midlands while Snowkitten and I headed for Moor Street station and our own transport home. The reasonably quiet service allowed us one last chat about how we really didn't want the con weekend to end, and then after a final hug we both headed for our own homes. An awful lot had happened since Friday, but nearly all of it was fantastic. Roll on 2018!

Additional: as OilyValves' comment reminds me, on the approach to New Street the guard/conductor/whatever on the train made some mildly humorous remarks about the attractions of Birmingham... and mentioned that it was a place where "the wheels of friendship" turned. We did wonder whether he knew! :P

Next time: the infamous merch haul photo!

3 comments:

  1. The Muffin break chat was very nice, despite me feeling half asleep. Mmm, coconut muffin..

    The only thing missed out here is the guard's announcements about the "wheels of friendship" etc. ;D

    There's gonna be a part 5! :O

    I'll get round to doing my own write up at some point. I feel it'll be rather worth doing considering I got up to a lot of different things to you.

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    1. I've added in a bit about the "wheels of friendship", as that needed to be said. Thanks for reminding me! :)

      There'll be a part 6 as well, actually – that will be a "Thoughts" post a little similar to what I posted on UK of E a few days ago.

      It'd certainly be interesting to read your own report. I like reading about different people's experiences of cons in any case, so if you do it I'll look forward to it. :)

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  2. I have very mixed feelings about the Monday. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice to have that one last day, even if it was mostly about travelling. But I guess there was that thought there that it was almost drawing to a close, and that was pretty tough going at times. Still, that aside, it was great to see Pegasus Road, and to see a few other con visitors along the way! The movie poster at the Odeon was a nice little surprise just before we got to Moor Street, and the "wheels of friendship" comment from the guard was just perfect. I'm convinced it was tied in with Ponycon somewhere.

    I was very lucky with the bus back, as it turned up at Cradley just 10 minutes after your train left. So there was no need to carry everything up the hill after all. That was certainly very welcome!

    And I'll just add a huge thank you to Ponycon, and also to you for being a part of such a wonderful weekend! :)

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