Not this weekend just gone but the one before, myself and my best friend Nat took Megan and Lily with us to Nottingham, to a Harry Potter convention and then followed by a Yule Ball. We’d had it booked since about February and we were all looking forward to it. We had a hotel booked for the night, but also so we could get changed in between the convention and the ball. Although we had a weekend ticket for the convention, we had pretty much decided we would only attend on the Saturday (unless it was really good and then we might go again on the Sunday morning). However in the end we actually decided to only go Saturday after, checking into the hotel (Premier Inn) first and then walking around.
In the morning I still needed to work but while doing that I made us all bows. Megan was Ravenclaw, Lily Gryffindor and since I sway between Gryffindor and Slytherin, I picked Slytherin. Nat is Gryffindor too so she decided on a Deathly Hallows inspired Gryffindor bow. We all wore Harry Potter t-shirts too. We set off for Nottingham around 2pm and were there for about 3pm. We checked into the Premier Inn and then walked the 10 minutes to the convention.
When we got to where the convention was (Nottingham Conference Centre), there was a blue ford Anglia car outside and a replica of Hagrid’s bike. Sadly I don’t think either were genuine. We headed inside and there definitely wasn’t much of a wow. Outside were some owls, inside were some stalls (both upstairs and downstairs). Apparently there were some workshops and special effects stuff but there was no timetable or map to carry around so we just looked at stalls. Megan bought a watch and Lily bought a pokemon (yeah not HP related). We spotted a reptile area on the way out but otherwise we spent about an hour looking at stalls and nothing else.
We headed back to the Premier Inn, grabbed a cup of tea and sat for a while before deciding we should get ready for the Ball. Nat curled Megan’s hair, while I did Lily’s. We had attempted to do Lily’s hair beforehand with the help of some Curlformers I’d bought but sadly they had mostly fallen out. It took about an hour to get them both ready and then about the same again for Nat and I. We put on our dresses and makeup, heading out of the hotel around 7.30pm (the ball was due to start 6.30pm but we didn’t want to be too early).
When we got to the conference centre, it wasn’t really that clear where to go so we asked. There was a bar and the ball upstairs and a hog roast outside. We headed for the bar first and got drinks, then into the ball which was like a wedding no one wanted to be at. There was a band playing but everyone was sat down looking miserable. After about five minutes we decided to head out to the hog roast instead. Luckily, this was amazing and sitting outside was nice too. After not being there long, a string quartet started up and it was quite enjoyable to sit there and listen.
Though to be honest, Nat and I could quite easily have left at this point, Megan was all for it too, Lily asked if we could go back into the Ball. As we headed inside there was a photobooth (pretty rubbish at that) so we had a picture taken and then went back up. Lucky that we did really as a few people were dancing and we bit the bullet and joined in. Within 15 minutes everyone was up, the live band were back and the lights were dimmed. This last hour was the best of all and thanks to Lily we ended on a high note. Though we didn’t stay quite till 10, we made the most of the evening and enjoyed it despite its lameness. I’m glad we went but it wasn’t worth £25 each.
We headed back to the hotel, got changed and climbed into bed. It had been a pretty nice evening but really we had made it enjoyable between the four of us, rather than the event itself being good.
