What I Did On My Holidays...

[curiouswombat]

Or Return of the Ring, Tolkien 2012.

gillo and I thought, back in May, that by August we would be quite ready for another adventure - and what an adventure it was!

I began to write a post covering the whole weekend, but realised it just wouldn't work - so here is a post just about the first day!



We stayed in The Burleigh Court Hotel - a 4 star hotel on the campus of Loughborough University - not the sort of thing that was the norm in my day, but we began to see the point of it the longer we were there! So we had very nice accommodation, at a reasonable cost. Loughborough is a very big campus and most of what was happening was a good 15 minutes walk from the hotel - but we discovered, almost by accident, that it was not only possible to drive from one end to the other - but that others also found this the best way to get around - and there was plentiful parking.

Sadly we were just too busy to make use of the spa and swimming pool....

We found out from the hotel staff that it had been the UK headquarters of Team GB in the run up to, and during, the Olympics - not surprising as Loughborough University is a major sporting centre. There had been a lot of extra security put into place and the receptionist told us they had been 'in lock down' but it had been exciting!

So - here are some of the extra defences that kept team GB safe -





As you can see, the two sides would lock together and make it almost impossible to drive anything up to the hotel.

By the time we arrived, got ourselves organised and orientated, and up to the part of campus where things were happening, the first session both Gill and I attended was by Martin Baker discussing how Gollum is used as a device to represent different things in different countries, greed for example. Then Kristen Thomas considered anachronism in The Hobbit and in Lord of the Rings, before the opening ceremony and dinner!

During that first afternoon we began to look around the exhibition and the dealers area - and one of those moments that will stay with me for a long time occurred; there was a painting of Elrond in armour*, and under it stood a young man who said "Hmmm - nice armour." He was wearing identical stuff. This picture is not one I took, it is courtesy of Jenny Dolfen, one of the artists.



The young man is called Simo Nousiainen, he is a Finnish metal smith, and he made the armour himself. It is so flexible he can actually do somersaults in it.

Another memorable moment, later in the weekend, was Simo, back in his armour, trying to sneak, unnoticed, late into a talk... :)

*It was a rather good picture - a younger Elrond than Hugo Weaving gave us, but clearly based on him, but it wasn't in the catalogue so I don't know who painted it!

Also that first afternoon we admired some fantastic art by a guy called Jay Johnstone - he considers how the Red Book would have been illustrated had it been discovered in the medieval period - and his pictures just blew both Gill and I away. Others too, it transpired over the weekend! Such a lovely guy too - he was so thrilled when we enthused as he had only just arrived, and it was his first ever try at exhibiting. As he was also staying in Burleigh Court we also met him over breakfast a couple of times.

After dinner in the university refectory - very tasty, and good company (this is where we first bumped into Pellegrina and also Wellinghill), we decided to go find our hotel bar and chill for the evening and this was when we discovered that the hotel bar was so far from the reception area and our rooms that Usaine Bolt would probably have required a feeding station at the half-way point... but it was a lovely bar, with lovely staff.

From then on, to get to everything we wanted to, we got up at cock-crow every morning; particularly as the dining room was just past the bar...




I think that is actually enough for one post! More soon.

Comments

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My pleasure - I love both the iconic stuff and the manuscript type as well. I really do think I might treat myself to something - or put it on my Christmas list.

[chaotic-binky.livejournal.com]

Did you dress up?

I stayed in Heriot-watt uni once. It was all right but I think Loughborough must have the edge by a long shot.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

No - I did wear a cloak and the fancy cloak pin I made, just once - but for another time I might be tempted. Probably 10-20% of people were in costume much of the time - I have a whole set of the French group who lived in their tents as if the Rohirrim at Dunharrow, or somewhere similar, for the whole five days!

Loughborough is bigger than Heriot-Watt I think, looking at both on Google Earth. It has so many sports facilities in particular. A lot of people stayed in the student accommodation, and there is another hotel as well - but I think we made the right decision about where to stay!

[kathyh]

That's fantastic armour and the artwork is beautiful.

The Team GB defences look like giant bolts across the road.

Looking forward to hearing more about the weekend :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

There were a few others in armour too - but he was the only one in Elven banded...

Being in the Team GB HQ was an added point of interest, I must say. and whilst we were there we also shared the hotel with the England women's Netball Squad, and the GB junior gymnastics squad!

I have a lot of pictures - and a brief résumé of some of the talks to post yet!

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

Loved your post. Since I couldn't be there, reading about it at least gives me the illusion I did.

What a great costume! Beautiful. He must be a wonderful metal smith.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - there is a lot more to come...

Wasn't that a wonderful costume? There are some more rather wonderful ones, too - but his was unlike everything else.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

What terrific armor that man made! And the Jay Johnstone art is very well done. It amazes me, the talent of artists.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

His armour is wonderful, isn't it? And Jay Johnstone's art is even more amazing in real-life.

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Sounds great! And I love the armour! :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Isn't the armour wonderful? There is a lot more to tell yet!

[shirebound]

I'll be enjoying all of your posts. Thank you for sharing your adventure with us.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'll get the next one together to post tonight.

[gillo]

I'm glad to see Jay's website is back up. I loved the fact that he was so blown away by all the interest in his work.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I was pleased to see it up again when I checked, too. I'm just wondering whether to wait to add a couple of things to my Christmas list now...

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing. Love the armour and the artwork.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My pleasure. Both wonderful, aren't they?

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Neat! It sounds like a wonderful trip and glad to hear that you guys had a ball!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It was a wonderfully eclectic mix of fandom and academia, I learnt a lot.

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Very nice armour. Did he clank?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is rather good, isn't it? And no, he didn't clank at all, the reason him sneaking was so funny was more because he was, literally, shiny and rather too eye-catching to sneak across the front of a lecture theatre!

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

A knight in shining armor! I'm amazed at the flexibility.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Banded armour was meant for the footsoldier - like Roman Lorica Segmenta, and so it needed to be pretty flexible. But he has done a rather good job of making it and I hope that he is very proud of it... I think he might be!

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Marvelous artwork.

The Finnish metalsmith did a really great job on the armour. I can't wait for more of your report and wish I had been able to attend :-)

- Erulisse (one L)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

He is a fabulous artist, isn't he? And totally blown away by how everyone enthused over, and understood, what he was doing. There are certain elements of Klimt in some of them too - and, again, he was genuinely pleased when I commented on that.

And that armour is really neat, isn't it? There is more costume stuff to come... quite a lot!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Wellinghall :-)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oops! That's what comes of working from memory when you don't have a very reliable one...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I know just what you mean!

[wormwood-7.livejournal.com]

I love the artwork by Jay Johnstone. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you had a splendid time that first day.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

His artwork is absolutely stunning at full size - it was a real highlight of the whole event for me. The whole event was excellent.

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Great report. I have been following Jenny Dolfen's entries on the event as well, so I had seen that wonderful suit of Elven armour. I am also familiar with Jay Johnstone's illumination work. (I am not so far out of the loop as I sometimes think I am!) Happily looking forward to more. I am very jealous of you.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I thought of you when I saw that Jenny Dolfen was there. But Jay Johnstone's work was new to both my friend and I, and we were both blown away by it.

I do have a picture of our Finnish Elf that I took whilst he was singing a very Elven sounding love song to a young lady - I think she was Czech but I might be wrong.

I will post more in a couple of hours or so.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I wondered how you got on at the hotel. The plus side of staying in the student accomodation was that it was only a short talk to everything though it was very basic.

Wasn't he a wonderful elf!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We found that quite a few people were driving up and down - there was loads of parking space at both ends. And then altariel and edge_of_ruin realised, when they came to eat with us, that if you went out the other end of our hotel it really wasn't very far to the student accommodation anyway!

I would choose the same again if I went to anything else there - especially over The Link which seemed, practically, to be further away as you had to cross the main road.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Too late I figured the driving up and down option too. There was a car park right next to the dealers room and as I had given Heather a lift I could justifiably have parked there! Yes, if there's a next time, we'll know!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Wow! That armour is amazing! I'd love to see him doing somersaults in it.
:)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I thought you would have missed it, being away - I miss heaps when I'm away, I fear. It is most spectacular armour - and he seemed a very nice young man, too.