At the end of July I visited London Film and Comic Con with Little Miss Playground (LMP).  It was our first time going to an event like this and we were bursting with excitement, the fact that YALC was in the same building was such a great bonus!  Our main reason for going was for LMP to meet Katie Leung, the actor who plays Cho Chang in the Harry Potter films.  After a really early start we met up with friends on the train and headed into London…in the rain.  Yup, the only weekend in months that we have had rainfall was the weekend were likely to have to queue for an age, but actually we got in really quickly and after a quick high five between LMP (who was dressed in a Porg top and Ravenclaw hairband) and a stormtrooper we were in! Rewinding a bit, we were there on the Sunday so it was a fairly quiet day which was handy for us but not so good for the whole Saturday looking at twitter and all the stuff that was going that we were missing, although this was mainly YALC based.

When we arrived it’s safe to say that we got really swept up by it all, I decided that I wanted to get to meet someone too and the lovely Jewel Staite from Firefly was there so I thought why not!  She was really nice and loved that LMP wanted to be in our picture too!  It’s a blink and you’ll miss it opportunity though and we were in and out in about 30 seconds!  Katie Leung was also super sweet with LMP – they were both wearing Star Wars t-shirts and they had a lovely picture together.  Carrying on with the whole swept up thing and to make up for the fact that they had only seconds together, we actually went the whole way and got our pictures signed too!!! Katie was again so lovely and really chatty and loving LMP’s Jyn Erso funko that she picked up too!  We also got our picture with Jewel signed, but we could tell that she was so tired as it was nearing the end of the 3rd day for her.  Ever the professional though she still managed a smile for LMP!

We headed up to YALC for a little bit, although I have to say that it was such a nightmare to get to!  Really badly advertised and most of the staff had no idea as they were only volunteering for LFCC. But eventually we did get up there and I got to say hello to Steph and the Geeky Clean team, I picked up one of their YALC candles and also a NPC Crate pin for all that I had done for promoting their first box, which was really kind of them.  I also stopped by Bookish Burns and picket up their Adarlan’s Assassin candle from the Throne of Glass series – it’s honestly one of the best smelling candles I have ever had!  Book wise I was kind of gutted that a lot of the publishers hadn’t restocked their tables, there were more than a few books I wanted to get, but all were sold out and the books weren’t as bargainous as I was let to believe they would be.  But I was glad I headed up there just to see the lovely faces I was looking forward to meeting, it was however, really apparent that Saturday is pretty much the day to be there.

Shopping wise, it was a bit overwhelming – a lot of it felt like a geeky market place but prices reflected a captive audience.  There were some gems in the fray though, a £5 funko pop stall was a great find (see above re Jyn Erso) and there was also the wonderful Geek Boutique, which sold so many fabulous things – I wish I had more time and money (we found them last thing) as their items were just amazing, with not only their own handmade stock but also Iron Fist shoes, which are a favourite of mine. We picked up a Moomin skirt for LMP and some Hattifattner earings for me! Dotted around the marketplace though were great little extras, like a lego recreation of Endor, a ton of cosplay, retro gaming, a Tardis and plenty of Daleks.

It was a fabulous day, I was just sad that for the most part us and our friends were on separate schedules so saw little of each other but we will definitely be going again next year along with Mr Playground and the smallest playground dweller as there were plenty of little ones around.  Sunday is definitely the day to go if you have little ones though, it’s nowhere near as busy, especially if you have to take a buggy with you. I was also actually glad I kept an eye on twitter as there were definitely plenty of guest updates throughout the weekend. Roll on 2019!