No flowers, by request

Hello!

It's a strange World when I manage to update my blog twice in a month, right?

Well, I finally have something properly worthwhile and interesting to tell you about (even though I'm sure that the people that read this are the people that were there at the weekend, anyway - but who knows).

Fair warning though, I am drinking wine whilst writing this so it might not make any sense to you - at least it makes sense to me though, right?

I spent most of my weekend with the group of people below (and Amy, who wasn't in this photo, for some reason):

Front: Eilidh, Heather and Laura, Back: me and Lottie

Sherlocked 2017 began last Friday (27.10.17) and, of course, there were a few problems for everyone on the way, because what kind of weekend would it be if there weren't any problems? In the end, all of us managed to arrive safely in Birmingham, thankfully.

I met Heather, Amy, and Eilidh when I got off the train and we made our way to Birmingham International, where I was sharing a hotel room with Heather and Lottie (who would arrive on Saturday).

We managed to get ourselves completely lost on the way to the Hilton hotel, and spent over half an hour walking in the wrong direction. Eventually, we managed to work out where we were (with a little help from Laura and Charlie granted), and registered ourselves at the main reception.

Due to having a Platinum Package (which cost me £600 on its own), we were given a Sherlocked Convention bag, a photograph of Benedict Cumberbatch signed by the man himself, a mug, and a pen amongst other things, as well as getting an autograph and photograph with all the guests in attendance if we wanted it.

We made it just in time for the opening ceremony of the event, which included all the guests that were already there coming out onto the stage and introducing themselves.

Gordon (the owner of the vegetarian pub in The Hound of Baskerville) and Lisa (Anthea) were first out onto the stage and were quick to engage the audience with their quick wit and charming nature.

They were followed by the Holmes family which included Indica (young Eurus), Tom (young Sherlock), Louis (the slightly older young Sherlock), and Siân Brooke (Eurus) who I had been dying to see since her appearance in "Sherlock" in January. Now, I'm not really one for children, but Tom and Indica captured everyone's hearts on stage that night - Tom talked about his missing long hair, and Indica spoke about how she wished she had her braids in.

Following them was Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue, the two masters behind the show (minus Mark, of course). Surprisingly, the crowd was rather kind to Moffat, considering the stuff I had been reading online in the months leading up to Sherlocked.

They were all lead backstage for a bit of a break before they were thrust upon the hundreds of Platinum ticket holders that were waiting for them at the first of two drinks receptions (including my friends and me).

I think it's safe to say that we were not expecting there to be free wine at the drinks reception, and we definitely didn't expect to get regular refills either. By the time the first guest (Lisa) arrived at our table, Laura, Heather, and I had already made our way through three glasses of wine each in pretty quick succession.

We were clearly standing on the wrong side of the table because not much conversation was really had with Lisa; which was a shame.

Next up came Siân. Now, I had promptly downed my glass of wine when I saw that she was being led to our table, which was probably a mistake. I don't think I managed to say a single word to her (that changed over the rest of the weekend), and then I nearly managed to fall on the floor by the time she had left.

Bit embarrassing really.

Nursing my fourth glass of wine, Una Stubbs made her way to our table with her little packet of crisps held close to her body. Una is an absolute shining star in the World, and I will never tire of talking to her about her work. I asked her about the car scene in series four (where they had to use a stunt double to replace her), and whether she would have preferred to have been driving with Benedict in the boot herself. Her face instantly lit up as she said, "of course".

We then made a comment about her choice of shoes because, as always, Una delivered on the shoe front. They were black and white brogues, which matched the collar of her dress - she told us that she liked wearing white in winter because it wasn't a colour that was very popular during that season.

Una Stubbs is a blessing to us all.

Next up was my personal favourite guest of the evening, Gordon Kennedy. Of course, everyone around the table knew him because he had been in a Sherlock episode briefly, but I grew up knowing him as Little John in "Robin Hood". When I mentioned this to him, because no one else was speaking and I was so tipsy by this point that I was full of more confidence than I have ever been, he was pleasantly surprised. He too, by his own admission, had had too much wine by this point and was more than willing to tell us all stories about his time in "Robin Hood", including how Richard Armitage (Guy of Gisborne) had to walk around set, considering Gordon isn't massively tall.

One time, at the only convention the cast of "Robin Hood" has ever been a part of, they all took part in an archery competition which he believed he had won. Whether that is true or not, I will never know.

The following morning, after managing to get ourselves back to our hotel in more or less one piece, Heather and I woke up before seven and tried to get ready for the long day that was before us.

Unfortunately, Heather wasn't feeling well and, after eating the worst breakfast I have ever had to force down my throat, I had to leave her in the room to go and find Tilly - we had met Tilly at the drinks reception the night before, and I was pleased to discover that she was in my group and knew one of the people I had been wanting to meet (hi Harriet, if you're reading this).

By 9:45, we had met Jonathan (Anderson) and had seen Una again at their autograph tables and it was time to be reunited with Siân. She remembered me- she actually remembered me from the night before.

That was potentially one of the greatest moments of my life.

We then made our way to get Sacha Dhawan's (AJ) autograph, and he is honestly one of the sweetest (smallest) people I have ever met, bless him. In all seriousness, Sacha is a lot more compact than I imagined him to be (I don't know where I got this from, by the way - I just presumed).

Next up, we went to Loo Brealey's photo op. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you just how much I love Loo - she's a massive inspiration to me, particularly because she doesn't shy away from the word "feminist". She fights to keep her place in the film industry and damn does she do it with style. Here's my photo with her:

I look relatively okay in this photo and Louise is absoltuely stunning (as always)

Loo and Siân's talk was up next and, sitting in the second row from the front, I wasn't disappointed. The two of them have such chemistry, and I'm honestly devastated that the two haven't shared a scene in their careers so far. I guess I can hold onto that hope though, right?

We found out that Molly likes heavy metal and Eurus has her own syncronised swimming team, so take from that what you will. 

Then it was my photo with Una:



Tilly, Lottie, and I then went to get out autographs from Gordon, who remembered us from the night before! I told him that he looked constipated in one of the photos that he was signing (which he took in good humour, luckily for me) and he asked me where I'd been hiding because I'd taken too long to go and see him. He was so lovely to us all the entire weekend, bless his heart.

After that, there was the cast photo, and when Gordon saw me, he smiled and raised his eyebrows at me. Clearly, by this point, we were reaching bff status. Here's my cast photo:

Excuse my face but I'm trying not to freak out because Siân is touching my arm

After lunch, we decided that it would be a fabulous idea to go and see what Louis Moffat's meet and greet session would be like. In the end, it was far more awkward than we could have ever envisaged. Lottie badgered him about "Hotel for Dogs" and film, and then everyone left. When we saw him again on Sunday, it was clear that we had made an impression... not the best, I'll admit.

Before we got Gordon's photo, I went to see Siân again, hoping to get her to draw something for me so that I could get it tattooed, and the face she pulled was very amusing. I think it scared her slightly; the prospect of suddenly needing to draw something for someone. We even had a little wrestle to get the poster I wanted her to sign out of the cover. It was cute:


Concerning the tattoo, I think I might get the bee tattoo I've been looking at with the 'Happy!' (and maybe the 'with love') and the kiss on my ankle. Please let me know what you think about that though, please.

Seeing Gordon again was interesting. He asked me where I had been since he'd clearly been waiting all day to see me again. What did I say? We were the best of friends.

Here are the rest of my photos from Saturday, including one where I got Siân to strangle me (which she clearly loved doing because by this point I was definitely annoying her, let's be real):

I ruined this photo by being in it but, look how beautiful and happy she looks!

The concentration on that face is inspirational

Look how happy Gordon looks !!

Steven Moffat has never looked happier - clearly he knew I would be a nuisance in the evening

This is the Victorian Set used on the show!

At the drinks reception that evening, I bonded with Steven Moffat (who told me to go stand in a corner), told Jonathan that I thought Anderson was a knob for the first part of his character (who was then promptly taken away so I couldn't redeem myself) and became friends with Sacha (who touched my arm, causing me to get wine in my own eye) about History Boys.

The day came to an end with a bit of drama, (I won't go into that because I wasn't very good at dealing with what was happening and I don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable) and I ended up dancing away my sorrows with Harriet and a really unenthusiastic Tilly.

In comparison, Sunday was relatively chilled out. We got cast photos, photos with Louis, and group chat photos with Sacha (who gave me a fist bump in the cast photo), which are all below:

By this point, Louis clearly hated all of us

We forgot what we were doing for our last photo, so Sacha told us to panic. We did!

Then came the talk that everyone had been waiting for: For the love of Lestrade.

How anyone can not love Rupert Graves I will never know. He's a man of many talents and is full of great life advice. We also think that he might have accidentally hinted that he ships Holmescest but, that's a story for another day I think. He also definitely needs to be cast for a part in "The Sound of Music" as he wanted to be a nun when he was six. We can all hope.

Laura, Heather, and I managed to win Siân's meet and greet, which meant that I could ask her questions about things that aren't Sherlock related, including whether she was a fan of Doctor Foster before she got the part of Sian - she was, and it turns out that she's friends with the writer, who ended up writing the part just for her. She was both happy and slightly offended by this fact because Sian was sometimes extremely unlikeable, but she said that she had a lot of fun playing her.

Here are the rest of the photos from Sunday:

As Laura mentioned on the day, we look like we're modelling for a university prospectus

My favourite photo of the weekend - can't believe I was the only one who saw what he was doing

This made everyone in the queue laugh, which was really nice to hear

I love this man ridicuously

I love my friends so much - my weekend wouldn't have been the same without them

My weekend ended with an emotional goodbye with my friends; none of us knowing when we would be able to see each other again because we live so far away, and a long train journey home (3 hours...).

I bet that's how reading this post felt - like the longest train journey of your entire life. I apologise for that immensely. Believe it or not, I have actually left out some of the details from the weekend because I realised that over 2200 words are more than I have to write for my essays at uni (a thing that still exists, unfortunately).

So I'll end this post here with a little note to my friends: I love you and care about you more than ever. I thoroughly enjoyed every second we were together and thank you for managing to put up with me for so long. I miss you and I really truly hope that someday we'll be able to see each other again, even if it means we have to wait until the next Sherlocked.

Thank you for reading this (again, I'm sorry this is so long)!

Until next time.