con diary

[julesjones]

Current con plans for this year:

Redemption -- arriving Friday, leaving Monday. No panels and not planning to do anything other than help out on tech if I'm up to it.

Eastercon -- not going. It's simply not feasible if I can't stay in the con hotel itself, because I can't manage the amount of walking/standing needed to use the overflow hotels.

UK Meet -- planning to go assuming I'm sure I'm available by last date for the discount weekend rate. But it's expensive by the standards of fan-run sf cons, so not buying a ticket until I'm sure I can go. (Yes, it's a ticket event, not a membership event.)

No particular plans further out. I expect I will once again fail to get to Novacon...

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I believe there are a few rooms reserved in the Eastercon main hotel for those with mobility problems, so if you really fancy going, it would be worth enquiring. Also there is supposed to be a free bus running between the main hotel and the overflow hotels, so there shouldn't really be extra walking, especially as there is a planned Quiet Room for people who are staying elsewhere to chill out in if/when the hubbub of the con gets too much.

I'm still unsure about it. I can't justify spending a huge amount of money, but may try some sort of mini-break incorporating a couple of days at the con, similar to what I did last year in London.

[julesjones]

Even the amount of walking around needed to get between programme items is going to be more walking than I should really be doing, and possibly more than I can manage. Having to stand to wait for a bus is too much even if the bus actually happens. I also can't carry any weight of consequence, which means I need to access my room fairly frequently just to pick up/drop off stuff.

And I don't *look* disabled. If you saw me walking a hundred metres, I'd look fine, it's just that I can't do that too often or too frequently.

Yes, I could email them and ask, but I don't particularly want to get into a debate about whether I'm disabled enough and why I didn't book earlier; whether when trying to book a room, or later at the con itself when someone sees me walking around without a limp and decides that I got a room under false pretences. It's a lot less stressful to simply acknowledge that two cons in two months may be beyond my current physical resources, and only go to Redemption, particularly as many of my friends are in two minds about Eastercon anyway.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Wish I could be there at Redemption...

[julesjones]

at least you got there once -- and it was good to see you at least once, even if it was an awfully long time ago now.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

It was, wasn't it? I can safely say I haven't changed... much :)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Apparently there are still a few rooms left in the main hotel for Eastercon for those with medical reasons for needing them.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Ah, replied before I read the other replies and I've duplicated what Helen said, but just to add one more thing, there's no interrogation about _why_ you need the room for health reasons.

[julesjones]

You do have to explain on the booking form why you should be allocated a room in the main hotel. And as I mentioned upthread, I don't *look* disabled, and that causes problems in itself.

If it was the only con I was likely to go to this year, or I was sure most of my friends would be there, I would be more willing to deal with it. But neither of these are true. So if I'm going to a con in winter/spring, it'll be the one where I know the hotel and know it's within my physical capacity to handle.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

It will be good to see you at Redemption.