Animeday 4

by Simon Devey

It was with some reluctance that I set off for Sheffield on the 4th March for AD 4, this reluctance being brought about by the realisation that I would miss my usual Friday night excursion to the Bandon Arms Hotel disco, and consequently wouldn't see my current interest Cathryn. But make the journey to Sheffield I did.

I arrived in Sheffy at about 4pm, after making a slight detour to Birmingham to pick up all stocks of Tales from the Cajun Sushi Bar Issue 4 after it was discovered that there was no way they were going to get to the con otherwise.

After negotiating various traffic hazards in Sheffield town centre, I parked up in the closest NCP to the Space Centre and walked to the shop. Once inside I was greeted with the sight of Dave and Lol frantically rushing around trying to sort out last minute hitches. I also secured from Lol a fresh photocopy of the map of directions to the hotel, having left mine at home in my briefcase!

I left the Space Centre with two things on my mind, food and somewhere to empty my bladder! The latter was more important and was duly completed, leaving my mind free to concentrate on what to have in order to satisfy the former. Lack of funds dictated that I should find somewhere offering very much for very little and this was achieved with a visit to Pizza Land who were offering 'as much as you can eat for £2.99' - a deal not to be turned down.

My hunger quashed I decided it was time to head for the hotel, and anyway, if I'd have left my car much longer, it would've been locked in the Car Park overnight!

Arriving at the hotel I was extremely pleased to find that booking my hotel room late had been beneficial. I hadn't managed to get a room at the Rutland, but instead was staying at the Forte Posthouse up the road. The Posthouse is in a different class to the Rutland. I was on the 9th floor, the room had a bath (one luxury I don't like to be without), a trouser press, a fridge, a double bed and all other mod-cons. It was also about three times the size of the room I'd had last year at the Rutland.

After bathing, I went down to the Rutland to see who was about. The usual group of reprobates had assembled in the foyer ready for the trip to the Frog and Parrot.

When we arrived at said hostelry, Brian Flanagan and I set about checking out the local talent, attracting attention from one onlooker who shall remain nameless (Brian, you know who)!

Cut to Saturday....

Saturday morning came and I entered the dealers' room intent on spending as little money as possible, an objective I very nearly achieved except that I fell for Sorayama's book Hyper Illustrations 2. Also picked up in the dealers' room was the long awaited bumper edition of Jim McLennan's Trash City - nice one Jim.

At this point in the report I'm finding it very difficult to actually talk about any of the anime I saw, possibly because I saw about five minutes worth in total. In fact this seems to be the case at every con I go to - I see less and less every con (so I'll leave the specifics about the anime program for someone else to cover). The longest I sat in front of a screen was during the all-nighter, in order to watch the live action version of Wicked City. Strange film, my only comment being that there wasn't enough female flesh on display.

Sunday morning came and after a hearty breakfast (also better than last year at the Rutland) I made my way to the Rutland in order to say my goodbyes. I had to set off home early as I had work to do during the afternoon.

Finally, I have to say that I had less enthusiasm for this con than for previous ones. I don't know the precise reasons for this, except perhaps for Cathryn, but than again it may have had more to do with the fact that there are certain elements of fandom that I'd rather avoid - Brian, I'm in total agreement!