About a week ago when Amber Benson was announced as visiting Cardiff's Forbidden Planet International I've gotta say we were rather surprised, it was basically along the lines of why would she choose to come to Cardiff out of the many other cities in the UK; either way we were pretty damn ex static. Mainly because the last time we saw her (at Collectormania 10) everything was very rushed and we got a dodgey photo out of it (with me not looking at the camera). So I was going to be damned if my experience meeting her for a second time was not going to be perfect!

Some rather colourful events also took place before her 4.30-6pm signing; and is namely the reason that will explain exactly why I fail.
Ok, so we're in Cardiff, pretty much the capital of Wales, well known most recently of course for Doctor Who. So unsurprisingly sitting down waiting for the time to pass I spy none other than Mr Russell T. Davies of respective fame!

Of course I don't have the guts to go up to him and perhaps ask for a photo and compliment him on his work; oh no! I sit there and discreetly inform Catherine who just walked past, and sit for 5 minutes watching him walk by until Catherine convinces me she will initiate contact with him. At this time he is already long gone mixed into the crowds of people down the busy side of Queens Street.

I most positively fail! If you do not understand why... well then you just don't know me. But it wasn't just me yesterday, Catherine fails too! Having forgotten to bring Moo to meet Amber again! Silly Catherine!

So then after about 10 minutes of muttering to myself how much I fail and completely baffled looks from Catherine we decide to go back to Forbidden Planet and have a slow look around to bide the time til we go upstairs to meet Amber.

Of course I take far too long doing this that by the time we head upstairs we are hit by queues!

Due to Amber not arriving til nigh on 5pm everything was going a little slow, and we had to suffer overhearing the conversations of the people surrounding us, which was fun, though the creepy Scully doll, Alex Ross print and numerous strange MacFarlane figures definately made up for it, so by about quarter to six we got to Amber, fully recognised the guy sitting with her. (from where is a mystery!!)

And explained to Amber how we were the girls with the cow and she recognised the idea of moo, and shamed Catherine for forgetting her Amber was seriously so much more fun than at C10 and she was not getting rushed in the slightest, plus I got to ask her which aspect of filmmaking she liked the best; though she said Directing >_> (directors) but mainly because she gets to boss everyone around. She was such a laugh it was awesome, then when it came around to having our photo taken apparently Catherine wasn't smiling enough (according to the familiar guy on the camera) so Amber decided to do something weird to make us all laugh, and from that came our awesome photo

Hey wasn't it just Wednesday??

You know what Wednesdays mean -if you live in the UK, like science-fiction drama and haven't already seen the whole first season of Heroes- thats right! They mean a shiny new episode of Heroes! 'N what better than the episode that the first 8 (!) have been building up to, the very ominous Homecoming. Which I must admit was a little disappointing, if only for the fact that there are still at least three plot lines up in the air!

Is it just me and my sister that think Heroes can get slightly annoying being the only show we recollect that ends every single episode with "to be continued"

The other downside to Homecoming of course, was Hiro's literal disappearance from the whole episode bar a minute! Though there was much of Claire and Mr Bennet which more than makes up for it!

Then to make it even better the episode of Heroes unmasked was based solely on Mr Bennet! With some very awesome clips edited together to show his different sides; which were rather humorous ^_^

Onto another similar topic...

Now, I and my sister cannot be the only people that has noticed this, but has anyone noticed just how much they get out of the Bennet angle?

Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out the screencap and you're bound to recall it

Now, I love Mr Bennet, he is such a cool mysterious creepy guy (the creepier the better ) and seeing more of his character is always good, but he is usually either introduced by this shot, or they cut to it while he is on screen... now ok, perhaps I'm just taking this a bit too far and it is in fact a simple over the shoulder shot... but show me loads of over the shoulder shots in this show!! As far as an American sci-fi drama goes they are in fact pretty imaginative with shots (as far as TV can go)

But really... what does anyone else think, if you are reading this? Go on... make a comment on it!

Also Homecoming had to have the best line ever to crack me up in Heroes; said by Jackie to Claire:

"I think you’re a menace… and I’m not just talking about you punching me over your boyfriend — the girlfriend. I’m talking about you in general. We used to be BFFs, what happened?"
Made me laugh

September 1st/2nd welcomed our second visit to the London Film and Comic Convention unfortunately held upstairs in Earls Court 1; a venue with awful lighting hence some of the blurry photos! But none the less an amazing Showmasters event (as always)

About a week before the event I had mixed opinions on the show; Mary McDonnell had cancelled, and I really wanted to meet the President, leaving Hayden who wasn't that big a deal to myself (though she is real cute) Patrick Stewart who I wanted to meet but not immensely, of course Louise Fletcher who I wanted to meet so badly, then Andy Hallet, and Bill Nighy, who both respectively cancelled a day or two before hand. So nothing was looking too special; there were a lot of guests attending from Star Wars; and nobody special enough for that reason.

The same went for the usual mounds of Doctor Who and Harry Potter cast members who just don't really do it for me... my problem is, I like to meet Americans; they're just so different. Though don't get me wrong if for some reason Richard Attenborough or Gary Oldman per say wanted to attend I would be on them in a flash! But Americans are all so friendly!

Then come two or three, perhaps fewer days before the event the biggest announcement possible happens, and they promise not one but three other Heroes guests! Suddenly Hayden's appearance is at a great time and I can't wait to meet them all. Not only that but the three announcements are all guys from the show, big bonus!

The only unfortunate happenstance of the London Film and Comic Con is that all these amazing guests (along with most of the guests I wanted to meet) were only appearing on the Sunday; the day that we would have to leave by 4pm having to catch the Mega Bus back to sunny Wales (this is not sarcasm, it has actually been pretty nice down here at the moment!)

So of course after this great news, getting up at 5am for our bus came with a great buzz of excitement, surprisingly I could sleep properly (unlike at the prospect of last years guests) but I was still pretty excited! Just a damn shame that the bus took 3 or 4 hours, then we had to go all around the underground to get to Earls Court, check into our hotel; and with Catherine dressed as Lara we were both already a little pooped.

On entry to Earls Court 1 (after a short 5 minutes of lining up) I must say I was completely surprised at the difference in lighting and feel to London Film last year held in Earls Court 2. Though unfortunately I had no time to look around because Catherine had to go change into her outfit *sigh* so I was sat waiting in the toilets for about 10 minutes while people stared at the weirdness that was me -standing around with a cow in my arms- it was at this point I convinced Catherine to take part in the Masquerade, and after much mooching around to ensure this we finally picked up our VT's for Louise Fletcher and tried to locate Danny Dyer.

With no luck we found Andie Tong and waited for him to draw Catherine a picture; unfortunately I never got anything drawn *cries* but there's always next year!

An SFX subscription and £5 worth of milk Pocky later we took off for Louise Fletcher who had gotten an open queue in that time. So fishing out my copy of the amazing Wonderfalls -because I never brought my pretty One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to uni- I got it signed, agreeing on how wonderful a series it was, and how unfortunate it was to be cancelled, I also got to tell her -of course- how amazing she was as Nurse Ratched and that it was a serious honour to meet her; she was an amazingly nice woman, and she even liked moo too!

After then finding out that Danny Dyer had gone to lunch we decided to do that ourselves and bought the only real food visible at the overpriced cafe; a very yummy salt beef roll. Halfway through the roll Dyer and Tamer Hassan, as well as their rather loud Londoney entourage appeared for their lunch, and even after we had finished we had to hang around his table for quite a while until he appeared.

Danny was awesome, a real laddy guy, and so cool; and gladly posed with moo "liking a bit of cow" he was seriously awesome though, and perhaps my favourite guest of the whole weekend, well I got him to sign the GTA: Vice City instruction book, having voiced Kent Paul.

The Masquerade was pretty fun as well, with many a colourful costumed people having signed up; including one very enthusiastic Sai who felt the need to quote from 300, an extremely sad-looking Corpse Bride, of course, Catherine! And an awesome Jack Sparrow; winner of best of show! But of course these were not all of the cosplayers, there were a few awesome costumers going around; a real cool Batman and Joker pair, as well as a Morrigan!! Not to mention the USMC’s that we’ve seen from the past who let me hold their gun!! And the most awesome Klingon I’ve ever seen!

That was pretty much our whole day, leaving us with ample time to look around at all the stalls; allowing Catherine to pick up Heroes on HD-DVD rather cheap (to get signed the following day) and myself to pick up three DVDs for £10 off the cool stall with all the
Korean DVDs.

All we had left of the day was to check into our hotel; The Comfort Inn (much nicer than Londontown had me believe) and eat out at the fabulously amazing Wagamama, possibly our favourite restaurant ever, and with Timeout London doing a 2 for 1 offer it meant we could have two types of desert for the same amount we usually spend!

Sunday saw us with an 8am start, though after seeing the line already formed we regretted not having come out at 6am. Unsure whether this was for the Heroes guests or Patrick Stewart regardless we managed to get in and see everyone that we wanted in the time required.

This included meeting the awesome Patrick Stewart who has the most amazing voice in the world. As well as Hayden Panettiere (Claire the cheerleader from Heroes), Jack Coleman (Mr Bennett from Heroes), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli from Heroes), and Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli from Heroes). I personally didn't get anything signed by Patrick, though I did get each Heroes guest to sign my print of Tim Sale's cast picture (unfortunately excluding Mr Bennett). The whole cast unfortunately were very very swamped and busy and didn't exactly chat; but all seemed very nice; and I did manage to tell Jack Coleman that he was great at being creepy. Which he said comes naturally ^__^

As soon as Showmasters give them out I will be able to include the photo shoot pictures we got as well, but for now that was pretty much the whole event. One great convention as always, allowing me to meet two legends; Louise Fletcher and Patrick Stewart, while at the same time multiplying my excitement for Heroes; which like Doctor Who is very much simply good for a fun TV show, rather than something profound and constructive.

I also have to show this pseudo Pellegrino commercial that Milo and the gang created in France; because it's so weird it’s priceless!