Smile, nod and back away.

Oh gosh, how to start this?
Well, firstly, I was hesitant to even post about the gathering. Not because it sucked; quite the opposite. I had an absolute blast and I am worried I'll miss bits out.

Oh well.
What did we do? It's easier to tell you what we didn't, to be honest. Under the 'what we didn't' category comes 'finding any proof of anything paranormal', for a start. No Nessie, no poltergeists, no ghosts, no nothing. Shame, really.

What we did includes: Going to a goth club; visiting pirates; going on ghost tours (including taunting the ghosts and many members of our group being used as props for the tour guides to demonstrate methods of murder and torture); having a Mongolian Feast; whisky tasting (some of us); going to museums; climbing the 'Big Hill'; wandering around graveyards; playing with a Victorian electro-shock machine (so, so cool); watching a lot of Aussie and Brit comedy; visiting Loch Ness*; getting pointed at by a man with a fabulous beard in the 3D Loch Ness experience; watching the scary clock; eating a hell of a lot of pizza; getting a talk from Gordon Rutter; going to Starbucks (blech!); cow-spotting (the Cow Parade is on at the moment); walking up a lot of hills; and probably a lot of other things that have slipped my mind for the moment.

*We had the most wonderfully charming tour guide when we went on a cruise round the Loch. His name was George Edwards, and he sounded like Sean Connery. He was also the guy who discovered the deepest part of the Loch. So, the monologue went something like:

Yesh, when I dishcovered the deepesht part of the loch, they named it after me. That'sh becaushe I dishcovered it, you shee. It'sh called the Edwardsh Deep, becaushe my name ish George Edwardsh, and I dishcovered it.

He also may have mentioned once or twice (or three or four or five times) that he doesn't like to call them Nessies, or the Loch Ness monsters, because that's not their real name. They're the Eioch Uisge, or Water Horse (Horshe?).

So, we all bonded pretty much instantly, which was good, and now I think of Sarah, Nettie, Amber, Rowenna and I as 'The Coven'. I'm making sure I have a mental post-it telling me not to drop too many of the incredible number of in-jokes into general conversation (The Line, anyone?), but I can't make any promises.

We had an absolutely fantastic time, and I can't even begin to describe how much I enjoyed it. I'm so very, very glad that I got to meet all these wonderfully cool and quirky people, but it's going to be difficult to get used to them all being on different continents again. It's all so quiet round our way now, what with it only being Matt and I. Matt was very brave and tolerant of us all, and I must commend him on his patience.

I'm a bit down currently, due to the weirdness of it all being over, but I'll survive. Photos will follow, I promise.

Hello again, all you otherkin.