Chevron 7.5

At the Park Inn Northampton, 12^th -14^th November

Guests attending : David Nykl "Dr. Radek Zelenka", Kavan smith "Major Evan Lorne", Tony Amendola "Master Bra'Tac", Lexa Doig "Dr. Carolyn Lam", Andee Frizzell "Wratih Queen" & Sarah Douglas "Garshaw of Belote
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Disclaimer: all the below is written from my own memory so some might differ to actual events I tried to stick to facts but obviously I am only human.

I arrived on the Thursday to settle in, meet some friends before the conventions started. We queued up at 2pm to register getting our gold packs with 2 badges, pictures of all the guests to get signed, a fridge magnet, a wormhole extreme mug and a icarus base t-shirt as well as our schedules. Having some time to spare we checked out the dealers room with lots of really nifty gifts, pictures, and items. While looking around the fire alarm went and the whole hotel evacuated. We discovered later on the sauna had got a little to hot and smoky. However fit hunky gorgeous fire fighters are always welcome! Fire out we returned to our hotel rooms seeing Lexa and Andee on the way. That was one thing that was really different about chevron the fact the guests stayed in the hotel too made it very inmate but I was pleased to see everyone respected the guests space.

Before our gold cocktail party we went to the aptly named O’Neills bar, which served delicious food with fantastic service.

We returned to the hotel for the Friday night welcome to chevron party, where everyone took there seats and we saw the guests officially for the first time. There was no time for questions although all the guests commented on their flights. Andee said that she drank wine the whole way and was feeling great, while Lexa revealed she had a seat kicker. Sarah had come from Stratford Upon Avon UK so was feeling a lot more refreshed than a lot of us.

At the cocktail party we naturally divided around tables in groups of 10-14. The guests then spent about 7-10minutes chatting with each group. First to our table was Kavan Smith, who hugged some of the girls round the table, then asked everyone where they were from. One girl in our group had flew over from Estonia, and another from Gibraltar. Lexa apologised for Michael not making it. Sarah asked us why we came to conventions and went round shaking everyone’s hand in the group. Tony also shook peoples hand, he had flown in from LA. David was asked about the dubbing of his character in Czech, it was him it was another actor and he wished he’d been asked but he hadn’t and yes he really does use real Czech swear words in Stargate Atlantis. Andee firstly got the whole room to sing happy birthday to a lady called Catherine in our group who had turned 60 before giving her a huge hug. Then retold the story of getting into the hotel just wanting to sleep, then being evacuated, before meeting us in a corridor, finally arriving in her hotel room she told us about the drama of trying to find her light switch. (it was one where to activate the light switches you needed to place your key card in) She didn’t realise this and was reacting how she waved her arms, flicked the switches, yelled light, clapped her hand before admitting defeat and asking for help, she did comment that this adventure meant she had found her iron and ironing board.

Leaving the cocktail party we went to the themed Las Vegas party, massive events had set up gambling tables, where you could placed bets despite the chips being free. Inside the dance room there was a bucking stargate where you could ride the wormhole.  Kavan, David and Tony came to the party, Tony did some gambling while Kavan joined us at the bar. I have to say thank you for the pint he brought me. He chatted about random things among them peanut butter and jelly- he likes, Guinness- also likes and about a friends facebook who he had been stalking much to our amusement and her shock.

In the morning it started with the autograph and photo opportunities. All the guest were really friendly and the photos turned out great.

In the afternoon me and a friend Becki were lucky enough to win a guest encounter with Andee. It was a small group with just 6 people including me and my friend. She asked us where we were all from, I originally said Nottingham as that’s where I currently live, Andee asked if that was a village, I answered no but told her I originally came from a village called Bubbenhall, which she heard as bumhole. She kept repeating it, and told me it was her new motto, this was then brought up again and again over the con by the end I think everyone was saying it. Andee also shared with us news of her apartment which she has renovated from new doing all the work herself. Recently she finished so decided to change the theme so is re doing it. This lead to the story of her changing a light, being unable to open her fuse box she incorrectly assumed if the light is off there is no power running to it. As she sparked two wires together to ensure there was no electricity running between them her male friends phone rang in his front jeans pocket and the surrounding area got a bit fried. She also said over the course of the encounter that with the wraith eye slits anyone could be on set and she wouldn’t know.

It was then time for the Kavan, Andee and David guest talk. Andee was asked how it felt to have John Sheppard played by Joe Flannigan kneeling at her feet, her answer, it felt awesome. The guests where then asked if they went through the stargate and had to explain to aliens the best qualities of the human race what would they say? The answer, from all 3 guests was beer, with Kavan adding and boobs, and Andee adding Bubbenhall. The next question was who would u feed to the wraith. Kavan immediately offered his children as long as he could have them back for birthdays and Christmas they could even keep the junk over their mouths to keep them quiet. Andee and David both voted McKay as the best choice.
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David and Kavan then both did a live commentary on the episode Tabula Rasa. Kavan maintained that his part in the episode was accidently and he was just looking for the tictacs they had hidden on set. Kavan also said the infirmary scene where Sam, McKay and Zolenka are hiding was really unbelievable they’re trained soldiers and they can’t find people right under their noses, plus he never misses an attractive blonde.

Sarah’s panel was next, slightly different as she was alone, she said after superman she was type cast as a super bitch in her roles. She said she went to 6 cancels casting for superman and was only giving a call back after she ranted at the casting director for wasting her time. She originally moved to LA on a whim. Talking stargate she said watching the episode back she thinks she got the inspiration for Garshaw from a nodding dog as that’s all she seems to do throughout the episode.

The auction was a great success with lots of money being raised, at the end of the auction a video began showing announcing the new guest for Chevron 7.6 Teryl Rothery and Richard Deam Anderson they were lots of screams for fans and after a queue for tickets to the next chevron.

The party that night was wormhole extreme themed with a gladiator style fighting arena, a professional photographer taking photos in a mini studio set up and a large steady hand game that buzzed if your rod touched the sides.
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After a great party and a entertaining trip to accident and emergency and only 3 hours sleep it was time to catch up on any photos or autographs you didn’t collect on the Saturday. For me this involved retelling the embarrassing story on how I managed to fall up stairs. While Tony was very accepting this was a danger we faced in everyday life, both Andee and Kavan laughing. Kavan even going as far as to call me retarded before about 8 others also revealed they had to fallen up stairs. Andee also laughed about the term kicking off which isn’t apparently used in America. She commented she wanted t hang with me and my friend Joey, to which we told her she was most welcome.
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A group of us got to go to Kavan’s group encounter in which he revealed lots of really interesting stories over how he’d been casted in things. Most interestingly was his encounter with Alyssa Milano on Outer Limits where she was asked to do a scene naked and said she would do it if Kavan did, Kavan rang his agent but failed to get out of it so ended up with a cod piece covering. He said the first take was him and her against a wall. The second was on a podium with previous footage playing and them trying to watch their movements and copy them. The last one was the worst and involved being alone on the podium tonguing nothing trying to copy the movements aware that the whole crew was watching. He also told us about his tattoo which he got aged 16, all he knew is that he wanted a skull but cooler, the tattoo artist suggested using his birth sign a Taurus and getting a bull skull. The excitement of getting it lasted till he got home and his girlfriend commented about tex mex he then hated it for 16 years before he had it changed to something he does like.
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The next talk was Kavan and Lexa, Kavan shared a story about his son. He took him into the toilet and let him do a wee then had a wee himself his son gasped and said “dad you have a huge penis” Kavan said at the time he was speechless and just replied “err thanks” his son replied “it’s ok dad”. Its only when he got home did he wonder how many penises had his 3year old son seen to make the comparison.

Lexa then shared a story about her kids when her son came into the kitchen and asked if they could make a pipe bomb, she was so taken aback she just yelled Michael, he ended up throwing a bottle of lemonade around the garden, she blamed Michael for that one. She also told us of the time when her son came down in shorts in the middle of a Vancouver winter. She told him he couldn’t wear his shorts, she explained it was cold outside, he asked why, she told him it was cold, he asked who made it cold outside, she told him mother nature, he asked who controlled mother nature she said God, he asked who God was, and Lexa prepared herself for a big philosophical conversation when her daughter came and asked if she could explain it. Lexa said yes, so her daughter told him God was president of earth. Her son was more than satisfied with that answer.

It was then the final talk of the day the guests were talking about there party tricks, David did a cool coin trick where he made the coin disappear, Andee did a Yoga position. Kavan did a long annoying noise again, going EEEeeeeee, then asked Lexa about her party trick making a salad with her virgina, the whole started laughing as we all worked out where that had come from even Lexa looked confused.
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Lexa then shared the time her and Michael had been at the cinema and had seen Ian McKellen getting into a lift. Lexa totally fangirled and Michael had to drag her out. Later she saw him pointing at her and moving away. She then stood up on stage and did her Gandalf impression which was also hilarious.
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Sadly that is all I can remember of a fantastic weekend, overall it was a lot of fun despite some last minute changes to the guest list.

Injuries

Having recently injured myself i thought this would be an appropiate first topic to blog about. Firstly in reading this please i have full mental capacity and am simply only clumsy. At a scifi event i was running up some stair when i tripped. I was still holding onto the rail and as i fell forwards i knew i had hurt my thumb. I know i fell up stairs, you are now in 2 camps, its easy i've fallen up stairs before or you fell upstairs how? But it happened. Intially i denied the injury if i didnt look at it it didnt exist this logic was flawed. After applying RICE. (No thats not actual rice but the acronym Rest Ice Compression Elevation) to have continued pain and swelling i knew the remained of my saturday night would be spent in the accident and emergency department.

The hospital was in Northampton full of drunks and the elderly with the odd road traffic accident lying around. Following us in was a drunken sucidal 17 year old girl who had failed to kill herself and had a personal police guard. We found it annoying at the time but i worry where society is going if this is the future.Next in was a man with a cut across his face also intoxicated somehow this facial wound prevented him from being seated in the waiting room as he paced and panted across the floor. Going to xray there was a woman who had lost a £800 diamond and was ignoring the neckbrace and spinal precautions in order to look for it. Despite the fact there was a very real possibility that even the slightest movement might have paralysed her from the neck down. If it was high enough it could have killed her. For a £800 diamondshe was willing to risk this. I still struggle with the fact that £800 is the price she would have paid for her mobility.

After my xray in which the doctor gave it a cursory viewing before annoucing i needed to go to fracture clinic i got a splint and a sling and sent on my way.

On the monday i was in fracture clinic, my xrays were reportedly crap he could barely tell if i even had a thumb on them so i was sent for a MRI scan.

On the wednesday i was in the scanner 0830 having dragged myself out of bed about 20minutes earlier to get dressed before going to the hospital. In the scanner my arm was encase in a special cage and i had to enter into the scanner in the superman position. Needless to say whilst not the most comfy of positions i still managed to get back to sleep only to be awakened by the staff who had been trying to get me to answer question when i hadnt  answered they'd grown concerned. With promises that i wouldnt sleep in the scanner again it finished and i went home. At 1230 i got a call i needed an ultrasound, and i needed one urgently, at 1400 i was back at the hospital. Luckily it wasnt as bad as they feared there was no damage to the blood vessel or bone. I had ruptured my ulnar colleteral ligament on my MCJ on my thumb, a grade 3. This means the ligament was torn away from the bone completely ripped and had also ripped from itself. My doctor the  said this was the worst thing i could do to my thumb short of amputating it. He presented me with 3 options.

1) leave it and gradually loose all feeling, and movement in my thumb
2) go into plaster for 6 weeks before undergoing surgery and injury as bad as mine wasnt going to heal naturally
3) surgery,

Guess what i chose?

My surgery was scheduled for the mondat afternoon, i was nbm from 7am but last on the list. we went to the hosptial at one. i was lucky the only bed they had was a sideroom. Mum went shopping when i got told i'd been moved i was first. I rang her telling her she had to come  back, she made it and i wasable to tell her that i loved her before going down.

In theatre i was taken to the aneastetic room,they didnt get the venflon in first time in the back of my hand but they managed second time in my forearm. then they grabbed the syringe full of white stuff and i was off.

I woke and it was cold, someone was talking asking about pain i told them i was cold and was shivering. They popped a bear hugger on me. The doctor came out told me it had gone well. They tool the oxygen off me but my saturation which is the oxygen level circluating in my blood dropped from 100% to only 75% so they put it quickly back on and we were off back to the ward.

Mum was delighted to see me. As i got there i realised it hurt bad so i got some painkiller and slept. Some time later i remembered that my hand had been operated on. It was in plaster and the skin i could see was pink. Then my bed took off and i was flying, i dont know where just that i was flying on my bed. Then i needed the toliet. I buzzed the nurse who told me i could walk by myself i was just a thumb (despite being on oxygen, my arm in a sling, blood pressure cuff on, and a flying bed) i told her i didnt mind walking to the toliet but she had to show me how to land my bed first. She took pity on me aiding me in my quest.

The next day i was discharged my hand in plaster, i wasn't allowed to work due to my job needed 2 thumbs. In the first 2 weeks i was out of balence i fell over twice, once cutting my eyebrow open, i didnt know how wobbly you could become. Then the unbelievable happened.
Somehow in my sleep i managed to split my cast totally into 2 halves. My doctor said he'd had 2 patients before me who had managed the same feet. One had been in a car crash the other had fallen down stairs. I came out with quite possible the most bulky plaster in history.

After 4 weeks i went into a splint then nothing. Currently i'm struggling through physiotheapry andto get rid of scabby skin from being under the plaster then the sweaty splint its not pleasent.

There is a message in here somewhere,

thanks for reading feel free to comment