Letters to my future self

4th july - The legend himself: Neil Gaiman

finally got to see him in person for the 1st time today! its soooo exciting!

haha.

the plan for the day is to sneak into the press conference early morning, whether i fail or not, i will hang at mart until the mirrormask screening later in the evening at 7.30.

i woke up early so that i wouldnt be late for the event itself, had a hasty breakfast then hit the tracks downtown to orchard. from there i grabbed a latte and briskly walked to the council where the conference is held. the only problem being that i was walking in the wrong direction and i only realised it until 10mins later when i found myself going nowhere. time was running short. sigh. stood by the side of the road and put my hand out. 5 mins later, i was right in front of the council, jus in time. it costs me 3.50 but its probably a small price to pay assuming i do get in.

in the end, i did get in, and it was significantly much easier then i had thought. no name taking, no pass checking. i jus slipped myself into the building, in the lift, then into the conference room. follow the crowd, they say.

its only aft i settled down and gaiman walked in then i realised how out of place i really was. everyone around me was carrying either 1) pen + notepad or 2) armed with a bad ass camera or video cam. i had neither. not only that, i didnt even have the press kit which was some distance away which i could have taken when i entered the room. was focused too much on trying to get myself a seat 1st. by then, i seemed abit funny to stand up and pick up the press kit, so i stayed put anyway figuring that even if my cover is blown, they prob wont kick me out anyway. ;p

ok, so i jus sat there and listened and laughed, alot. while it was only a QnA session, wad he said is inspiring and equally funny. despite it being a 1 hr session, it seemed as if time was put on fast forward, before we knew it, it was over. right aft the end of the session, at least half the crwd reached into their bags and started out pulling books for him to autograph, to say he was swarmed was an understatement. haha.

got a trio of books signed, dream hunters and 1602, and another dream hunters for adrian. only pity was that he closed the books b4 the silver marker could dry for both copies of dream hunters, as a result, the words were well... smudged. oh well....

looked around for kun's colleague which i managed to find by coincidence (turned out i was sitting next to her all the while, haha) returned the pass, gave her thanks and bid her farewell and i was on my way to mart.

mart was bustling with activity, phone rang almost non stop as ppl called up the enquire abt the tickets. mucked around with the gang for abit, grabbed lunch, at abt 6 the 1st few ppl from the 4.30 screening made their way out. yet around 6.30, there were still ppl waiting to get their stuff signed.

the 2nd screening was supposed to start at 7.30, but to give the man time to catch a breather and to get dinner, they played us a 20min short film by gaiman on john bolton. disturbing, but at the same time, very funny. then it started, the background on how mirrormask came abt, collaboration with dave mckean, etc. the highlight itself was of course the screening of the trailers themselves. very short visuals, but u can tell how unique it was, mckean's style of art.

following that, a short QnA session, then it was down to mart for the signings. the queue was so long, it stretched from mart til the loo at the same lvl. i got to sit in the shop, joining the rest, but it also meant that i had to wait til the end of the queue to get my stuff signed, which was fine and in fact i was hoping that he would sign a couple more since it was the last few.

waited for abt 3 hrs i think, by 10, the central air conditioning was down and the shop was getting warmer by the min. eventually the queue cleared, but by then it was already jus past midnight. i didnt get alot of extra stuff signed thou, could tell that he's really worn out. signed 3 books, and my ticket (which i use as a bookmark).

had to take a cab home, which aft sharing still costs my close to $10.

still, its been hell of a day, i only look forward to wed when it all begins again....

ok, now to sleep, morning shift tomorrow... argh
-out-