Game,
Set and Match!

A great thing about conventions is that the guests are often over for longer than just the two or three days the actual event they are there for runs.
This allows them to take part in other events - such as tennis matches!
While I never watch tennis usually, I had to make an exception in the height of summer1998, when Jerry Doyle and Bruce Boxleitner faced each other in "the Battle of the Line" - a tennis match held to raise money for charity.

The weather stayed warm and sunny for the match, with Bruce and Jerry proving to be pretty hot tennis players (as well as looking pretty hot in shorts!). At one point, they roped in the organiser of the event to play a bit of tennis - let's just say he got marks for trying…! All this made for a pretty good day. Little did I know when I turned up that there would be an added extra to the day's activities - an impromptu photo session! I can think of worse places to be than standing with Bruce Boxleitner on one side of me and Jerry Doyle on the other! With events like that - who needs Wimbledon?

How Did I Get Myself Into This Mess?!
I got to rub shoulders with Bruce again a couple of days later, at Wolf 359 the Crusade.
I had no idea of what to wear for the Saturday night theme party, so I enlisted some help from a friend and had a costume all sorted out for the event.

However, when I got to the convention itself, a rather dangerous brainwave hit me. The costume had turned out so good, I figured I might just go and enter it in the fancy dress, and see what happened. It was easy enough to register and everything, even though I spent the rest of the day wondering what the hell I had let myself in for - as well as wondering how the hell I'd get my hair standing up in a Centauri crest. I managed the crest in the end - thanks to loads of hairspray, headbands and a heck of a lot of determination!

That evening, I took my place behind the scenes with the rest of the entrants and was stunned by the standards of costumes. They were great - and it's always interesting to see the kinds of outfits people come up with.
The waiting around was… how can I put this…?

SHEER TORTURE!
I'd seen how packed the hall was and wondered whether I'd have the guts to actually front up and parade in front of so many people.
There were upwards of a thousand attendees at that event…
However, I could not back out at that point, so I went for it!
I walked out in front of everyone, and was told I did the Cartagia walk perfectly - I didn't like to say that it was because I could walk no other way in the boots I was wearing! then joined the other entrants to wait for the results of the judging.

Before that event, the most I'd ever won had been a can opener in a charity cookery contest at college. So, when I heard my name and entry announced, I was stunned. I'm told my face was a picture, and am glad no-one actually got a snap shot of it! It was with great pleasure that I ended up standing next to Bruce Boxleitner, in front of heavens knows how many people, dressed as Emperor Cartagia.