It's okay, I've done it before.

Hello, as you can see, I've made it back safe and sound and then promptly got sick. I blame Justin Bieber and Draco's cock, but I don't think anyone is going to believe that...

It only takes a couple of drunk and desperate fangirls to come up with what sounds like a good idea, but it takes a whole load of sober and talented fen to pull it off. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the people who attended Crucio 2010 either in person or in spirit who helped to make it the success it was!

So, without further ado, thank you to:

accioscar, alovelycupoftea, annephoenix, arineat, aurora_sky, being_here, citrus_lime, chthonya, cleo_jay, croatoan6000, daiseechain, delorispea, delphipsmith, dora_the_nymph, dorotea, dripping_cherry, dysonrules, elequent_toast, enchanted_jae, girlofavalon, groolover, hereticalvision, joan_waterhouse, jtsbbsps_dk, katelinmr, kabal42, kennahijja, lady_of_clunn, lazy_neutrino, littleenglolita, lkaet, leochi, lolafalola, lokifan, lotuslizzy, luciusmistress, melusinahp, moonlitdark, morettaallstar, okydoky, phoenixacid, phoenix_on_ice, r_grayjoy, reira_21, robs55, scabbyfish, scarletladyy, seraphimerising, sesheta_66, snarky_scorp, softly_sweetly, sonofdarkness, sra_danvers, thilia, treacle_tartlet, utteramusement, ville_sweet_666, vix_spes, wickedblonde, wwmrsweasleydo and anyone else I've probably forgotten in this cold-medicated state. Please tell me if I've left you off and I shall amend this list and iron my ears, post haste.

I'd also like to say a special thanks to dorotea for my lovely VK (with a leetle hint of VK/HP) drabble! And a huge thank you to delorispea whom I'm going to kill if she doesn't write more of the AS/S WITH YOUNG TOM fic which I got!!!

And wo-ho, thanks to the tattoo-designing-tastic thilia, I got this!!! *dances around coughing*



Speaking of gifts, I've been blessed with two absolutely wonderful hd_smoochfest pressies: How fantastic was it to find out that the lovely joan_waterhouse wrote my giftfic Friendly Fire??? And how wonderful was it that she told me in person before the reveals so I could hug her and fangirl her? Another huge thank-you goes to the brilliant artist citrus_lime for Got Ya!, in which she managed to draw in loads of my kinks without even knowing she was doing it! Thank you!

I wrote three drabbles for the meet-up, none of them H/D - shock horror. I even wrote one in two different languages (poorly) and then enlisted help for proofing and the the translation into the third. Anyway, here they are: Madam Hooch for the lovely joan_waterhouse, the Twins for the talented moonlitdark, and Marcus for the bonita sra_danvers. There's no warnings, as they're mostly gen, although they all got a little introspective rather than silly, and that's so not like me.

( Drabbles )

One last interesting point to the whole weekend was my flight back to London. The cockpit and cabin crew were made up of one woman and five blokes. You'll never guess what the woman was doing...*nods* yup, flying the plane! Right on!

EDT: THANK YOU so much for the lovely flowers - croatoan6000, cleo_jay, softly_sweetly, and wwmrsweasleydo!!!!

Of course, I can't finish this post without thanking the one person, without whom fandom, meet-ups, fests, and everything else in the world would be completely meaningless.

I love you tonnes, Dan cassie_black12!

We hope to see everyone (and more) for Engorgio 2011 in Cardiff. When we can sort it out:D

I am back from the wilds of a very snowy Scotland where I had the most stupendous time with my family and friends.

The best part (aside from watching my son open the remote-controlled scorpion he's been asking for all year) has to have been meeting up with the uber-wonderful moonlitdark, who not only suggested knocking over an old lady who was wearing the hat I wanted (such heroism), but also helped me pick out earrings for treacle_tartlet's very late Christmas present, gave me some good ideas for my hp_art_tales fic, and forced me to drink two pints of Best after stuffing myself at the Elephant House. I cannot WAIT to get back for the Meet-Up!

And today I had another fabulous lunch with my fun French friend, sybillevance and my family. We had a lovely stroll around the colleges and saw some beautiful buildings. I've lived here for over a year and still never get up to the colleges, so it's great to have a tour guide and a friend point out all of the stuff around me in such an historic setting.

How do I love my flist? Let me count the ways - thank you so much to the following awesome people:

MAJOR FLAILING must go to treacle_tartlet for what has to be one of the best things I've read this year, made all the more special as it was a gift for me! I'm talking about A Funny Thing Happened On The Train To School... It was melt-you-into-the-floor hawt and pressed all of my post-HBP buttons.

And keeping with my train theme (I have such a thing for trainsmut), the lovely emzlovesharry drew me a bit of Next Gen naughtiness!

My second partner in crime, alovelycupoftea surprised me with a cute and cuddly lion toy (where did she get that idea from???), which my daughter has co-opted and I haven't seen in a week.

cleo_jay, everyone's favourite spouse, sent me a load of wonderful things including a gorgeous red and silver belly-button ring! Thank you, muchly, light-of-my-life! (She's mine, too, y'all!)

My favourite little boy's bestest godmother, and my oldest friend in any galaxy, ladyoneill, sent a box of wonderfulness for my kids - hurray for SW toys!

Finally, thank you to me for getting myself a present in the shape of this gorgeous piece of H/Sc art you all know so well. It is, of course, Tackle, by the ridiculously talented stellamoon, and seen in several of the more high-brow places around LJ. But the original is now sitting right here on my desk!!! I've kept it mostly away from the puddles of drool which collect next to it on a regular basis.

If I've left anyone out, please feel free to shout at me. Royal Mail is still jealously holding on to a couple of things, I believe, and as soon as they arrive, I'll be squeeing all over you, I promise!

I'm not sick...yet. It wasn't our intention for you all to leave the hp_uk_meetup with a cold, but it sounds as though many of you have. My prescription for recovery is a couple more days off school/work and a healthy helping of pr0n.

Drabblers and artists - I am talking to YOU now.

THANK YOU

You are the awesomest people on the planet! Your gifts were the biggest talking point of the meet-up! Everyone loved that they had personalised drabbles and to show our appreciation, we have a litle something for you. I'll need your snail mail addys to get them to you, so if you've a mind, please comment with it (screened, of course). I promise to Obliviate myself after sending these things out :)

I also have another couple of heart-felt messages to the meet-up team:

Huge thanks to alovelycupoftea for all of her hard work personalising the goodie bags with each of the attendees names. She also did an awesome job as an emcee to "Win, Lose or Draw", which we will play again (but the dirty version) at the next meet-up.

Ginormous thanks to my roomie softly_sweetly, who picked up on my subtle and slightly tipsy hint: "Ohbythewayguysmypaidaccountisabouttoexpireifanyofyouwantstoknow." You're already booked into Chez Phillips for a visit this winter and I'll put your name down as my roomie at the next event.

cleo_jay's huge box of chocolates is now almost gone, courtesy of my children and husband. Oh, okay, and me.

I'd also like to thank multiclassgeek for his help with the setting-up and sorting-out for us. We were lucky to have you with us.

And I couldn't finish this post without mentioning the unfailing patience, help, humour, generosity and all around exceptional organisational skills of my partner in crime, cassie_black12. Funnily enough, the process was nearly as fun as the final product! I hope I can bribe talk you into doing the same with the next one.

And speaking of that, we've had a few suggestions already for a May Bank Holiday (28-31/5) get-together, so if you're interested, join the comm if you aren't already on it. From the looks of it, the hotel is cheaper and so is the breakfast! Wo0T!

And to everyone I met last weekend - I feel very lucky to have met so many wonderful people. That was THE most fun I've had in a very long time. I look forward to seeing you all again!

Finally, I'd like to thank my husband who thought to save me the trouble of doing the laundry and very nicely did it for me in my absence. Yup, the kids' white school shirts went in with my red blouses. I think you know how this story ends...ah well. ♥