I have convention throat.

In the days immediately following a convention, I always end up with convention throat: my windpipe is sore and tired. I think it's a combination of talking, drinking, laughing and - in the instance of the ConVivial - too many mint humbugs. I suspect it is also three days socialising with people from all over the country/continent. Not only do we mingle, so do our lovely local germs. I think a Glaswegian virus is still partying in my throat.

In short, I did the following:

• won a game of Mornington Crescent and be on the winning team at the Never Mind the Balderdash! music quiz.
  My opponent in the Great Game was an experienced player so we went for the 1857 game with the Welsh variation (thus excluding the Jubilee extension). My singing of intro's in Never Mind the Balderdash! was, thankfully, inaudible.


• told some evil plans including heckling the queen
  with Dickens and staking a claim for the great exhibition using gravity.
  I actually really enjoyed this - the game was to create your evil plan from three clues drawn from top hats. I was rather pleased with the Great Exhibition one, simply as it gave me a chance to use the "I shot an arrow in the air. She fell to earth in Berkerley Square." line from Kind Hearts & Coronets.


• learnt to deal a particular version of poker


• danced a set in the caileah
  Thankfully, I took a turn early on and thus avoided the highly energetic dances later.


• had Rabbie Burns declaimed to me by a scotsman in full gillie dress
  actually, you understand the poet's power over the ladies when that happens. Or maybe it was the amount of absinthe I'd drunk at that point.


• attempted to outriddle the absinthe fairy in order to get a free absinthe. I failed.


• utterly failed to attend all the talks I meant to go to.
  I did get to the Pre-Raphaelite art talk and had to bite my tongue when the subject moved on to Constable

Oh, and Lucy and I won a costume award for our campaign for universal sufferage. We stormed the Drones club and waved placards like anything. Maybe it was shouting "votes for women!" that has caused the convention throat.

links to photos will follow...if anyone posts any up...