J-popping up that con

This year's J-popcon has officially ended! I spent it with a lot of lovely folks. And we found a sign at the venue that sort of applied to conventions, haha. Friday I saw the opening ceremony, sat in on Yaya Han's panel and walked in the fashion show.

A lot of people from abroad visited and it was splendid to see them again ! And a few of us ElfQuest fans came - but I hadn't heard of Pernille's Auroree and completely flipped my shit. She just looked so utterly perfect.

We'd been worried if anyone would come see the fashion show since a concert were held at the same time slot. But so many people turned up that a few had to sit in the middle on the stage ö

We had our fun as always ! Those two photos with great lighting here are Silas'.

We almost forgot to eat and my god, I have never eaten a grande sandwich that quickly. We sat and talked the night away for some time and then I went home stringing along Kristine and Emma.

Emma was competing in the Danish qualifiers and had to be in the stage hall at 8 in the morning, so we had to get up at an unholy hour.

Saturday I debuted my Sleeping Beauty; blue version cosplay. Soooo many Disney characters showed up that day. So great to spread the magic ~

I spent most of day hanging out with the competitors backstage and inspected details and all that. And then the cosplay show arrived and it was a hot pot of brilliance.

And of course the judges found some winners! We were all cheering for each other and just screeching of happiness, haha.

Anne and Mona won the WCS after having aspired to it for sooo many years - and then to do it on Anne's birthday was huge. Lea and Sabine's Spirited Away act sort of made me weep.

I chatted up Anna in her comic stand to catch up after a few months. She's always such a delight.

I scored an ice cream from Dino dear and ended up crying with Aybike because she said something funny.

We went to the cosplay dinner and I stuffed my belly. It was great talking to the girls that I haven't seen since the last con and some of the foreign girls that I didn't know. Elina from Finland and Yaya were so sweet c:

And then the nightclub with Kimberly, Jody and Jeroen went down and I wiggled for some hours before Kristine and Emma dragged me out, haha.

 

 We ended up taking the same night train as a lot of the other girls!
Saturday we started off by walking around the con for a bit, since we'd been too busy with all the other stuff the first days. Yaya sat in her booth and the Dutch people came over and we had some relaxing fun.

I wore my Anastasia again!
J-pop collaborated with a  arcade hall and had some old machines open for free play. It was so great, haha! Donkey Kong is too hard for me though haha...

As always Sunday was slow and a bit quiet due to everyone being tired, haha. We sat around and talked and that was just fine by me.

Thanks for the memories once more!

Hunting a new camera

The days go by and I hang with friends, having lovely times. Rie is back from her African goodwill experience, wee!

 I went to eat brunch with the lovely girl Stine some days ago. I can't believe I've reached an age where I have pregnant friends!

I saw The Hunt a week ago. Boy, that was something. There was this horrified silence in the theatre. I don't care if you're not Danish, this is a must-watch film.

In other, more happy, news!: I purchased a new camera! I have been wanting the filming feature of the newer models for some time now (for when I travel and for experimenting with a new format) and the time was now. So I got the 650D - it's got a flip-out screen that makes me so damn happy, since I can turn the screen towards the inside when I don't use it - that way I can protect it from scratches. Also, the touch feature is quiet cool.

The green is almost out of my hair now! "Washes out after 6-12 washings"... right. More like 6 months.

Flashback Sicily (2)

Giardina Naxos, also known as the first city founded on Sicily, also known as where we lived, is apparently famous for that church.

Giardini Naxos is a city located at the bay. We had to walk for just 2 minutes to reach the ocean! Our hotel had a nice location, weee.

Sun, sun, sun. And fooood.

Grocery shoppingggg. And pizza (naturally).

We befriended this lovely couple of other Danes. They didn't really know how to feel about the too-tourist-y feel of things, haha. They were so nice and we had some great evenings playing cards with them.

Close to Taormina, which is close to Giardini Naxos, is a well-known island called Isola Bella. But you have to take the cable car. And I'm sort of afraid of heights. But I did it and made it to the place.

I found a jelly fish, iiiiiih.

And I hijacked some Brits boarding a boat to see the Grotta D'Azurra (Blue Cave). It's an optic phenomena where the light in the cave makes the water seem a mind-boggling shade of blue.

Back to Taor-"most romantic city in the world"-mina to see the old Colosseum and eat the last dinner meal of the trip - naturally with an ocean view.

The very last day went by without great drama. It was the coldest day of our stay and every weather forecast said that it would start raining and becoming colder. So it really was time to go home to even colder little Denmark. 

But we read by the beach, took a quick dip in the water one last time and went home to pack.

My two favourite Polaroids from the trip. Taormina and Etnaaaa.

I did shop. But only a tiny bit.
Our ice-vendor had this fantastic photograph hanging in his shop. It is so cute, haha ! It was so much fun to see him looking at us as normal, semi-annoying tourist the first time we said hello to him and then him wishing us a safe flight back home on the last day. He was a lovely man.