Post-Con Exhaustion

I crashed out on the couch and lost consciousness for an hour after getting back from work. Haven’t done that for quite some long time. It was good. Yay for the nap couch.
Roleplaying convention “Conpulsion” was good. I sat on the front desk a lot and turned away grumpy yahs. “Yah” is the word for the upper class folk in general, and specifically those students who are at Edinburgh Uni with substantial financial backing from mummy and daddy, or anyone who looks like they fit that profile. (They’re related to “neds” in a matter/anti-matter way.) The student union building was closed (end of term) except for the con, but the memo hadn’t got to a lot of people it seems. Most of them were lovely, of course, but it’s the grumpy and rude people that stick in the memory. Hurrah!
(Graffiti in the university toilets remains a good way to read the psyche of the nation. Aside from the inevitable cottaging graff, the walls are covered with nasty yah-vs-“slacker” and Scots vs English abuse. Class and nationalism still divide this country with a power I keep underestimating.)
The con itself was similar to last year – big, balkanised, drunken. I didn’t make it to any of the games, but I did okay with the ‘hanging out in the bar’ part. It was notable as the con debut of recently-released game AState by local boys Contested Ground Studios, a source of much merriment and celebration because the CGS guys are brilliant and genuine and the game is very worthy indeed.
A personal highlight was being recognised for ‘services to roleplaying in Edinburgh’, mostly in reference to the Ottakars Roleplaying Club, on account of a bunch of write-in nominations by attendees. A huge surprise and I was really touched so see so many people I respect giving me such a show of support. Wow. A really good feeling.