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Blog: To The Lakes!
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Part of the exhaustion was due to the fact that on Friday night we'd gone to Heathrow Airport so we could celebrate the arrival from New Zealand of Mr Paul Hibbett the next morning. This was BRILLIANT, but it did mean getting up at 6am and then ZOOMING off at about 9am to get my train to the NORTH.
I had been worrying about travel arrangements for WEEKS, but as it happened I got to Euston station just in time to get an earlier train, and ZOOMED up to Lancaster and then onto another train to Windermere. As I struggled aboard with all my GEAR I was delighted to discover Ms E Pemberton going in the same direction, which meant we got a chance for a CATCH-UP. I then hopped into a pre-arranged taxi and headed off to my GUEST HOUSE, which has also been pre-arranged, also by the organisers of the festival. I tell you what, it did feel a bit FANCY getting all of this stuff sorted out for me, rather than having to do it myself!
Getting there earliy meant there was time to get properly checked into the DELIGHTFUL and EXTREMELY friendly Elim Bank Guest House, do a lot of re-packing of GEAR, and the trundle into town. COR! I have never been to Lake Windermere before (I *think* I've been to the Lake District as a child, but am not entirely sure) and was STUNNED by how beautiful it is. I'm not normally one for HILLS as a concept but blimey, this looked GORGEOUS. It was also SURROUNDED by tourists, with LOADS of foreign people eating ice cream, TONNES of middle-aged British people in expensive walking shoes, and a large amount of Quite Angry-Looking HEN DOES. Also, as stated, HILLS, also LAKE.
I wandered round to the Festival Hub, collected my LANYARD, then went round to the venues area where I saw a succession of familiar faces, notably Dr H Earle (who would be introducing me later), Dr A Fitch (comics podcasting supremo) and Mr J Wills (literary agent to the great, the good, and also ME). It's always a bit* (*a lot) SCARY going to this sort of thing on your own, and so it was a huge relief to see some people I knew!
One of my (many) worries for the weekend was whether I'd have time to get my stuff set up before showtime, but luckily the event before me finished early so I could get in and get everything plugged in, tuned up and so on. Another worry was that nobody was going to come and see me, as ACTUAL GRANT MORRISON was on at the same time as me at the other end of town, so I was RELIEVED and also ASTONISHED to see people actually turning up. I was ESPECIALLY excited when I recognised the mighty Mr J Allison coming in! As long-term PALS will be aware, John designed the cover and internal images for Dinosaur Planet as well as the poster for Total hero Team, and is also one of my all-time favourite comics creators. I've been reading and loving his webcomics for DECADES, so for me it was a bit like SIR CLIVE SINCLAIR coming to see me sing a song about computers, but I managed not to faint or Get A Bit Silly, which was something of a triumph!
After that excitement it was time for Hattie to introduce me and then for me to LEAP into action, and I think it went pretty well. I didn't make any egregious errors, the slides were operated at peak efficiency, my voice held out, I finished in good time, and people LARFED. I even managed to sell a couple of ZINES using my new Electronic Payments Gizmo!
With that done I took my gear back to my lodgings, then headed out again for a WELL DESERVED beer. I'd been told there was a SPECIAL vegan meal waiting for me at the venue for the evening entertainments, and when it arrived I was a bit disappointed to find it was quite MEASLY. Luckily a member of staff managed to apprehend me on the way out and point out that that was just the starters! The rest of the evening consisted of some wandering around, chatting to the excellent James a bit more, and watching Kev F perform The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets Theatre Do Shakespeare which was GRATE.
Weirdly though,the high point of the evening for me was after I'd decided to go back. The downside to staying in a B&B rather than a hotel is that there's no BAR, and I really fancied one last drink. Luckily, when I reached my guest house, I noticed a sign up the road for a pub called Beresford's and decided to investigate. It said it had an "underground bar" which turned out to be exactly that i.e. a basement. I went in to get a beer to take away and ended up having a LOVELY chat with some of the regulars, including a chap called Dean who took me through his blu-ray collection on his phone. After a long day of travel and trying to be grown-up it was brilliant to just relax in an actual PUB for a bit!
The following day saw more wandering around, a great talk by Will Potter, Philip Bond and Shelley Bond, some CHIPS, and spending CA$H in the MERCH tent. It was all rather lovely but I was DONE IN by this point so headed up my final MASSIVE HILL to the train station and the journey home. It had beem a BLOODY BRILLIANT weekend, but I was very pleased to get back to my own sofa at the end of it all!
posted 29/9/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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